Downton: What's this Abbey's Appeal?

That question may seem like a strange subject for a children's book blog, but I think the answer can be applied to writing in general - whether it be literature for children or, as in this case, a smash-hit public television series. I discovered the answer last week.  From one of the creators of the series, Julian Fellowes (I'll share his answer at the end of my post).

Surely you've heard about Julian Fellowes’s Emmy Award-winning show about an Edwardian family,  their servants, and their life in an English manor.  I admit I am one of the many people who has gone through Downton Abbey withdrawals in-between seasons and has counted down the days until the newest episode aired on Sunday nights.

I've asked myself more than once why this PBS Masterpiece Classic series appeals to such a broad spectrum of viewers - women, as well as men (my husband is a huge fan), Brits and Americans.

Is it because we all love history and period dramas?

Last summer (while in withdrawals between seasons) I read Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey: The Lost Legacy of Highclere Castle. This biography, written by the current Countess at Highclere, Fiona Carnarvon, is a thoroughly enjoyable and entertaining account of the Fifth Earl of Carnarvon, his wife, Lady Almina, and their grand castle, the inspiration for the popular PBS series. The fictional character of Downton's Lady Cora Crawley is loosely based on Lady Almina, the real-life American heiress and illegitimate daughter of banking tycoon Alfred de Rosthschild.

The real Downton Abbey: Highclere Castle

Is it the Downton Fab-bey set and scenery?  Downton Abbey is filmed at Highclere Castle, and the fabulous manor house has a starring role in the series each week (click here for more beautiful photos).

Highclere's library holds 5,000 books!

Beautiful salon

Is it the authentic costume design? Many of us look forward to the gorgeous gowns and dapper dinner jackets!

The Crawley sisters: Edith, Sybil, and Mary

Maybe it's Maggie Smith's one-liners? (Can you imagine having Violet Grantham as your grandmother?)

Dowager Countess: "What is a weekend?"

One of her most comical moments so far, was from last week's Season 3 opening episode...
All of Lord Grantham's formal shirts are mysteriously missing from his room and he has no choice but to wear an inappropriately informal shirt under his dinner jacket. His mother, the Dowager, mistakes him for one of the staff and asks for a drink.  As she turns and sees that it is the Earl of Grantham, without missing a beat she quips, "Oh I’m so sorry, I thought you were a waiter…”

Remember these gems?
Don’t be defeatist dear, it’s very middle class. 

I’m so looking forward to seeing your mother again. When I’m with her I’m reminded of the virtues of the English. 

No guest should be admitted without the date of their departure settled.

Is it the characters and romance? Now we're getting closer to Julian Fellowes answer...

Lady Mary and Matthew Crawley

Mr. Bates and Anna

Can you pinpoint what the main appeal of "Downton Abbey" is?  Consider Julian Fellowes answer: 
Over the last two rather extraordinary years, at the risk of sounding vain, I have often been asked why I thought Downton Abbey has been quite such a success.  Of course, it is hard to be definite about these things.  If television were an exact science, there would be nothing made that did not break records.  but supposing I were to put my finger on one element, it might be that we have made the decision to treat every character, the members of the family and the members of their staff, equally, in terms of their narrative strength.  They all have emotional lives, dreams, ambitions, and disappointments, and with all of them we suggest backstories, any of which are to be found in my own history...

The upper class family of Downton

The working class "family" of Downton

I was brought up in a class minefield.  My father's birth was grander than my mother's, his relations therefore disapproving of both her family and her, and she was condemned to the unenviable task of making everything in their life seem smooth and seamless when it was in fact riven with stitching...I suppose standing, as it were, on both sides of the divide has influenced my work...It is precisely because I identify with both teams that my writing, if I am allowed to say so, aspires to a kind of social justice which, I believe anyway, is one of the reasons it as reached so wide an audience.
[source: Parade Magazine, January 6, 2013]

Fellowes' honest answer is why we love classic children's literature such as Frances Hodgson Burnett's  The Secret Garden (Mary Lennox, Colin Craven, Dickon); Charles Dicken's A Christmas Carol (Ebeneezer Scrooge, Bob Crachit, Tiny Tim); Charolotte Bronte's Jane Eyre (Mr. Rochester, Jane); Frances Hodgson Burnett's A Little Princess (Sara Crewe, Becky); Johanna Spyri's Heidi (Heidi, Clara, Peter); Sid Fleischman's The Whipping Boy (Jemmy, Prince "Brat" Horace); and fairytales such as Cinderella.

Well, here's to Sunday night!  Excuse me while, I go and  feed my weekly obsession...

Happy Birthday to THE SECRET GARDEN - 2011 is its Centennial Year!

Did you know there is a REAL garden that inspired Frances Hodgson Burnett?

It is the kitchen garden of Great Maytham Hall, Rolvenden, in Kent, England, 

where she lived for ten years in the 1890's.  You can read about it HERE.

This year marks the 100th Anniversary of THE SECRET GARDEN, Frances Hodgson Burnett's beautiful story that has been a favorite of generations of girls (and boys) everywhere.  I loved the unfamiliar setting, wonderful characters, and riveting plot this book introduced me to as a child:  the lonely moors of Yorkshire, mysterious Misselthwaite Manor, a lost key to a hidden door, a tangled and abandoned garden, spoiled orphan Mary Lennox, her lonely Uncle Archibald, her hidden away-sickly-cousin-Colin, and kindhearted Dicken.

And of course, who can forget her little friend, the Robin...

"She stopped and listened to him and somehow his cheerful, friendly little whistle gave her a pleased feeling--even a disagreeable little girl may be lonely, and the big closed house and big bare moor and big bare gardens had made this one feel as if there was no one left in the world but herself. If she had been an affectionate child, who had been used to being loved, she would have broken her heart, but even though she was "Mistress Mary Quite Contrary" she was desolate, and the bright-breasted little bird brought a look into her sour little face which was almost a smile. She listened to him until he flew away. He was not like an Indian bird and she liked him and wondered if she should ever see him again. Perhaps he lived in the mysterious garden and knew all about it."

At its heart, the story is about two "disagreeable" children, Mary Lennox and Colin Craven, who, while transforming a dead and forgotten garden, are equally transformed themselves, as they cultivate a deep and enduring friendship.  "Two things cannot be in one place.  Where you tend a rose, a thistle cannot grow."  The garden becomes a place of healing for them as well as for Colin's lonely father, Archibald.

THREE CENTENARY EDITIONS... 1911-2011

Centenary Edition with over 70 illustrations
by Robert Ingpen.  

Centenary edition, illustrated by
Lauren Child, due out Sept. 2011.

This beautiful edition with
embroidered cover design by
Jillian Tamaki, is due out in October 2011

BOOK COVERS OVER THE YEARS...WHICH IS YOUR FAVORITE?

This was the edition that introduced me, as a child, to Burnett's THE SECRET GARDEN.  Beautifully illustrated by Tasha Tudor, it was first published in 1962.

Below is the first published edition of THE SECRET GARDEN, with illustrations by M.B. Kork, published in 1911 in its entirety (it had previously been published in serial format in American Magazine).

(photo courtesy of Project Gutenberg)

Another illustrator of an early edition
was Charles Robinson.

Illustrations by Inga Moore. 

 Graham Rust, illustrator.

Michael Hague's depictions.

JUST FOR FUN:  For any of you die-hard fans out there, take this SECRET GARDEN QUIZ and see how much you remember about this classic book!

EVERYONE NEEDS A SECRET PLACE...REAL OR IMAGINED

"...the realm of the imagination is not an escape from life's complexities but often a means of coping with them." - William Kilpatrick, BOOKS THAT BUILD CHARACTER.

My secret place - do you think it's real or imagined?

Have you ever stumbled upon a secret place that was right around the corner, but that you hadn't realized had always been there?  Children often find these places - maybe because their active imaginations help them see what the rest of us hurriedly pass by.  I recently found such a place...a small forest of Redwood trees, just miles from my home!  

View of the treetops from the trail we walk.

I had noticed the tops of the trees down below a horse trail that I've walked along, but I'd never taken time to actually walk down the steep pathway and explore what was there. Imagine my surprise to find over 200 Redwoods, nestled on a deep green carpet of grass, with bright sunlight filtering softly through their dense branches.  It reminded me of another forest, in Narnia, or maybe from a Bridge to Terabithia...

BRIDGE TO TERABITHIA by Katherine Paterson.  Did you know that this story was actually inspired by C.S. Lewis' imaginary world of Narnia?  From BOOKS THAT BUILD CHARACTER:  "To most casual observers in the rural town where they live, Jessee and Leslie look like a teenage version of the "odd couple."  Jesse comes from a poor family, Leslie from affluent cultured parents.  But there is something that binds them together; it is a shared imaginary kingdom called Terabithia lying deep within the woods.  When tragedy strikes, Jessee is able to find comfort in the world of the imagination and the mind.  He comes to realize that Terabithia is Leslie's legacy to him, a gift of friendship that enables him to come to terms with her death." (Contemporary Fiction/Middle readers, ages 8 and up)



More books about secret places:
SECRET PLACE by Eve Bunting, illustrated by Ted Rand.  "In the heart of the city where I live there is a secret place. Close by is a freeway where cars and trucks boom.  And a railroad track with freight trains that shunt and grunt."  There is a special place in this city that only a child, his father and a few other people know about. A man-made river runs through the city and it is home or watering hole to many creatures, from a coyote, to mallard ducks, to an egret, to possums and to many birds.  A gentle story for 4-8 year olds (Realistic Fiction).



RED SINGS FROM TREETOPS: A YEAR IN COLORS by Joyce Sidman, illustrated by Pamela Zagerenski.  A unique and poetic picture book about the changing of seasons. Each season is explored in terms of how it encompasses colors. In the spring, “Red sings / from treetops . . . / each note dropping / like a cherry / into my ear.” Green “peeks from buds,” and yellow “slips goldfinches their spring jackets.” Pink also speaks of springtime and baby birds: "And here, in secret places, peeps Pink: hairless, featherless, the color of new things." Old leaves and crushed berries smell purple... all of these intriguing images are matched in the imaginative illustrations - with stylized figures (intricately costumed and crowned) walking, running, and sailing through Zagarenski’s artwork. For ages preschool-1st grade.



THE SECRET GARDEN by Frances Hodgson Burnett.  (Historical Fiction/ages 9 and up) I'll never forget the first time I encountered this book!  I couldn't put it down. Still an endearing favorite, it's about an orphaned girl, Mary Lennox, who is sent to a Yorkshire Mansion on a vast, lonely moor.  An unhappy nine-year old, she is frightened of her new gloomy home, until she meets Dickon, a local boy who is friends with animals.  She also discovers an abandoned garden and a secret:  there is another child in the house...