Peter Rabbit and the garden as a small kingdom
Beatrix Potter turned a vegetable patch into a whole world of rules, risks and lettuces. Why Peter's great escape still thrills readers of every age.
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Ideas
Ideas
Essays on the stories we publish: the gardens, wishes, fairy tales and quiet moments that make a book worth starting. Each one leads to the titles it explores.
Edith Nesbit, everyday magic and the trouble with wishes
A sand-fairy in a gravel pit, a ring that takes wishes literally, a carpet that flies. Why Edith Nesbit's magic still feels close enough to touch.
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Why the Rose Grew Thorns: a fairy tale for grown-ups
High above London, a jewelled beetle overhears a Queen's secret and a wounded prince longs to be loved. Meet the first of Orion Rose's Garden Tales.
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Why fairy tales still speak to grown-ups
Andersen, Wilde, the Grimms and Perrault wrote of thorns, mirrors and impossible bargains. Why the oldest stories keep finding their way back to adults.
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Chekhov and the art of the unsaid
A cabman confiding in his horse, a love affair that begins in Yalta, a bowl of sour gooseberries. Why Chekhov's quiet stories feel closer to us than ever.
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The Secret Garden and the magic of growing things
A lonely girl, a robin, a buried key and a door under the ivy. Why Frances Hodgson Burnett's story of a garden brought back to life still casts its spell.
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