01 September 2021
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Guernsey Post are celebrating the publication of one of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s best-known works, The Secret Garden, with a set of six Alderney stamps depicting illustrations taken from the original novel.
Hodgson Burnett (1849-1924) was born in Cheetham Hill, Manchester. Her family moved to Tennessee, USA, when she was fifteen. She began her writing career aged nineteen to help supplement the family income.
Following great success as a novelist, Hodgson Burnett began to travel to England frequently and in the 1890s she lived at Great Maytham Hall in Kent, a home she cherished, which is thought to have inspired The Secret Garden.
At Maytham, Burnett created an outdoor study where she wrote each morning in the company of a robin that grew tame, the inspiration for Mary Lennox’s robin in the famous book.
The new stamps feature scenes from the book, such as ten-year-old Mary Lennox discovering the key that opens a door into the secret garden within the sprawling grounds of Misselthwaite Manor, on the 50p value. Meanwhile, on the highest, £1.20, value we see a re-worked and colourised photograph of Frances Hodgson Burnett, taken in 1886.
Issue date: 1 September 2021, www.guernseystamps.com