Frances Hodgson Burnett (1849–1924) was born in Manchester. After her father's death the family emigrated to Tennessee, where as a teenager she began selling stories to magazines to support them. She became one of the most successful writers of her day, and Little Lord Fauntleroy (1886) started a fashion for velvet suits for boys.
She lived between America and England, and the walled garden of the house she rented in Kent inspired The Secret Garden (1911). Together with A Little Princess, it remains one of the best-loved children's books ever written.