My mate Nicky of Newcastle facebooked me a few weeks back to see if I had ever read this. She pursuaded me to get out my copy and reread it. So I did, a book I have had for over 35 years. I haven't read it since I was about 11 though and I know I really loved it then. Would it be the same as an adult?!
Well, I really enjoyed it. It is such a great book to read when you are feeling down, unloved and grumpy because these words describe the two main characters, Mary and Colin. Their personality and physical changes throughout the book are really amazing. Their spoilt, selfish ways are the perfect antidote for each other and slowly they change to much happier and healthier children. And like them, you also get a real life enhancing boost when you read this book.
The garden though is the main pull of this book. it is absolutely magical and even now, so many years later I could so quickly imagine again this absolutely amazing secret place. I could see it all laid out so perfectly. the mystery, the magic and the secrecy are so well described. It really was still as exciting as when I read it as a kid. This is weird for me because I hate gardening ( although I have done some today.). But I can still appreciAte the magic as these kids begin to grow and feel loved through this connection with nature. And the descriptions are just so vivid. Almost real. (maybe all these clear pictures are because I read it so many times as a kid and the images all just came flooding back!
Through the vivid descriptions of nature, growth, change and elemental forces and through rooting for 'Mary, Mary, so contrary,' you just feel really uplifted. You kind of think, if these spoilt revolting brats can change for the better then there is hope for me!
It's interesting to think about the few adult characters in the book. The only two caring adults seem to be dickon's mUm and Weatherstaff. Mrs. Medlock just can't be arsed with the kids and Mary's Mum was an ex pat socialite in India who just wanted to forget that Mary ever existed.
I always loved the freaky beginning of the book when Mary's entire family and servants all die of cholera. That Mary stays alive through drinking wine dregs left at a banquet table is brilliantly grotesque! The levels of unstated abuse and neglect in this book are astounding.
As for Colin's dad, he is just pathetic. Stuck in mourning for Colin's dead Mother and totally unble to sort himself out until he has 'a moment' in Italy and realises that the soul of his wife is calling him back to the garden.
Also, I wish Colin wasn't in the book so much. his preaching and whinging and irritating ways got on my nerves a bit and because I loved Mary I found that her voice was just pushed out of the limelight. By the end it's all Colin's story. he kind of hijacks it.
As for Dickon, wow, what a boy. I fell in love with him all over again! only now do I see him as a Yorkshire based Peter Pan . I'm sure he's still on the moor today with his whistle, his squirrels and his lamb.
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