Trevor Millum’s grandfather, George Millum, was gardener to Frances Hodgson Burnett, author of the children’s classic The Secret Garden (1911); the garden he tended at Maytham Hall, her home, was the inspiration for the book, and George was the model for the gardener. His son, the author’s father, also born at Maytham Hall, was himself a gardener. He kept diaries of his day-to-day work, now published for the first time in this unusual and absorbing book.