Great Maytham Hall December 2003 the Country Houses Association announced that it was closing down its residential business and selling the eight Grade I and II listed buildings it owned. The walled garden of Great Maytham Hall provided the inspiration for one of the most famous of all books for children, "The Secret Garden". Its author, Frances Hodgson Burnett, lived at Great Maytham Hall from 1898 to 1907, where she found the old walled garden dating from 1721 sadly overgrown and neglected. Aided by a robin, Burnett discovered the door hidden amongst the ivy, and began the restoration of the garden, which she
The Secret Woman (novel) The Secret Woman (novel) The Secret Woman is a Gothic romance and suspense novel written by English author Eleanor Hibbert under the pseudonym Victoria Holt. It was originally published in 1970 and is considered to be a bestseller. Set in 1887, it chronicles Anna Brett's scandalous romance with the married ship captain Redvers Stretton. As they sail across the South Seas, tensions build among Anna, Redvers, and everyone else on-board "The Serene Lady", and a mystery involving murder, the destruction of ship called "The Secret Woman", and a missing fortune of diamonds begins to unravel. Anna Brett was born in