The Secret Garden Rewilded

By Anthea Simmons

Illustrated by Rachel Dean

Reviewed by Barbara Braxton

In 1911, young readers were taken into the world of the imperious, emotionally-deprived Mary, animal-whisperer Dickon, and the apparently-doomed Colin as their lives gradually changed as they discovered the delights of nature, the beauty of the outdoors and the power of friendship in The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett.  Orphaned in India and sent to live with an unknown, disinterested uncle at Misselthwaite Manor on the seemingly endless and desolate Yorkshire Moors, Mary is angry, rude and dislikes everything about her new life, where she lives and those around her and is not afraid to show those emotions.  But things gradually begin to change when a robin seems to show her the secret to a garden that has been locked and abandoned for ten years after the death of her uncle’s wife…

Fast forward nearly 125 years, and Anthea Simmons has “rewilded” the story to the modern era.  Again the main character,  Mia, has been orphaned when her physically and emotionally distant, thrilled-seeking parents are killed in a helicopter crash and she is whisked away from her boarding school (where no one is sad to see her go despite the circumstances)  to Mis Tor Manor on the edge of Dartmoor to live with her uncle and cousin Christopher. Like Mary, Mia is appalled to find herself in the remote countryside, in a freezing, crumbling manor. Grieving and missing her old life, she takes an instant dislike to Christopher, who never leaves his bedroom due to serious heart problems. And then, little by little, Mia starts to discover the beauty of this wintry world, and befriends local boy Daniel, who loves animals and teaches her how to ride a Dartmoor pony. One day she discovers a hidden door, covered in brambles and ivy, which leads to a walled garden … A special, secret place which needs someone’s care to bring it to life once again so nature can flourish. Does her life take a turn for the better, just as Mary’s did?

Just as in the original where the three children bring the neglected garden to life, so too do Mia, Daniel and eventually Christopher, but in this modern version there is a greater emphasis on the biodiversity and interdependence of the plants and creatures it supports, not only paralleling the real-life relationships the children are experiencing, but actively making it a safe haven for all that live there, rather than just restoring it, so the theme is very relevant to today’s readers. Rewilding is an emerging concept involving  “a progressive approach to conservation. It’s about letting nature take care of itself, enabling natural processes to shape land and sea, repair damaged ecosystems and restore degraded landscapes. Through rewilding, wildlife’s natural rhythms create wilder, more biodiverse habitats” rather than the restoration of what is, perhaps, a human-driven landscape.  In Australia, the World Wildlife Fund has a number of projects whose focus is “to support strategies that test and scale-up methods that help reverse the decline of culturally important wildlife and move beyond just preventing further extinction toward our goal of Regenerating Nature by 2030.”, any of which could become an interest for the reader if there are none closer to home.  

For me, this inspired a re-reading of the original, a beautifully illustrated unabridged edition because it had been so long, and that might also be the case for today’s readers, but this is also a stand-alone read that independent readers will appreciate for its own sake, perhaps inspiring them to become further involved in the protection of the planet .

Andersen Press, 2024

Reprinted from The Bottom Shelf with permission