Ramona asked Sinéad O'Hart:

Was there another purpose for "The Secret Garden" book being in the story, other than it revealed that there were at least two worlds?

Sinéad O'Hart Hi Ramona - thank you for your question! I think there were a few reasons I chose The Secret Garden. First, of course, was the fact that it would have been published before Mr Cleat is given it as a child by his father, and that it would have been well-known enough for the elder Cleat to have acquired it as a cross-world artefact. Then, there were the parallels in the plot: a young girl sent to live in a distant (or, in Tess's case, not so distant geographically, but it may as well have been!) home with unfriendly 'relations', who has to uncover a mystery based around that house, and whose friendship with a maid is important to how the story unfolds. And I saw the scene in the garden, when Mr Cleat explains some of the mechanism of Interdimensional Harmonics to Tess, as being reminiscent of Mary's exploration of the garden at Misselthwaite. I hope that answered your question! Thanks for reading.

flag