Welcome to my stop on the blog tour for Return To The Secret Garden by Holly Webb!
When I was little The Secret Garden was one of my favorite books. I longed to be Mary, so I could discover the hidden garden as I was convinced magical things would happen if I did! Return To The Secret Garden is is the story of another little girl, this time in the 1930's and her discovery of a diary written by a girl called Mary...
Why the Secret Garden? by Holly Webb
I chose to write a sequel to The Secret Garden because it’s always been one of my favourite books. I hadn’t considered writing a sequel at all, until a conversation about five years ago with one of my editors, where we were discussing our childhood favourites. The sequel was her idea, and I wasn’t sure at all – how odd to take someone else’s characters. But I kept coming back to the idea, as I loved the original book so much. Mary’s character was what I’d really remembered, but when I came back to the book, it was Misselthwaite Manor and its gardens that drew me in. I decided that I’d set my sequel later, since I was worried by writing a direct continuation of the original, and I wanted to introduce a different child to the garden.
I chose the wartime setting as I knew that the original three children would have been young adults just at the outbreak of the First World War – I hated the thought of Colin and Dickon going from such a sheltered, beautiful place into a war, and I wanted to write about the effect that it would have had on them. I’ve always thought that to be their age was particularly cruel – it’s so hard to imagine how it would feel to go through “The War to End All Wars” and then see the world creeping back towards another one. It was then I realised that if Emmie was an evacuee, I had the perfect way to bring her to Misselthwaite.
Even then, the plot took a while to come together. I knew what I wanted to happen, but perhaps it was because I had the constraints of the original, I wasn’t sure how to make it all work. In the end, I finally worked out what would happen on a train – I love train journeys for working! It was an evening journey to Edinburgh, so it was too dark to look out of the window after a while, and I was stuck in one place for hours with my plot (and some chocolate, I think). It wasn’t by any means the final story – I always plot my books out, but I don’t then necessarily stick to what I’ve planned. It wouldn’t be as exciting if whole new characters didn’t turn up in the middle…
About the Author
Holly Webb was one of the World Book Day authors for 2012 and has received high praise for her previous standalone fiction Looking For Bear, A Cat Called Penguin, The Chocolate Dog and A Tiger Tale. She published her 100th book, The Truffle Mouse, in August.
Holly worked for five years as a children's fiction editor before deciding that she would rather write. Holly now lives in Reading with her husband, three sons and just one cat.
About Return To The Secret Garden
It's 1939 and a group
of children have been evacuated to Misselthwaite Hall. Emmie is far from
happy to have been separated from her cat and sent to a huge old
mansion. But soon she starts discovering the secrets of the house - a
boy crying at night, a diary written by a girl named Mary and a garden. A
very secret garden...
Return To The Secret Garden - Holly Webb
Release date - October 1 2015
Publisher - Scholastic
Format - Hardcover | E-book
Giveaway - UK & Ireland Only
Scholastic are giving away a copy of The Secret Garden by Francis Hodgson Burnett and a copy of Return to the Secret Garden by Holly Webb to one lucky blog tour follower!
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Monday 5th October
Tuesday 6th October
Wednesday 7th October
Thursday 8th October
Friday 9th October
Saturday 10th October
Sunday 11th October
