Which Secret Garden recording should you buy?
The complete readings of The Secret Garden that we list run 7 hrs 13 mins to 8 hrs 59 mins. The short listings are abridgements read by famous names and cast dramatisations, and the abridgements are the ones to watch.
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Short answer
Carrie Hope Fletcher: complete and solo. Johanna Ward, Virginia McKenna, Indira Varma and the other complete readings in the table run 7 hrs 13 mins to 8 hrs 59 mins; choose on voice. The well-known names further down are the trap: Juliet Stevenson, Helena Bonham Carter and Glenda Jackson all read abridgements of this book, each a fraction of the length of a complete reading. The BBC Children's Classics edition with Harriet Walter and Beryl Reid, and the edition with Barbara Rosenblat and "(Dramatized)" in its title, are plays with a cast.
The recordings, compared
| Narrator | Length | Type | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Carrie Hope Fletcher Our pick | 7 hrs 38 mins | Unabridged | Complete and solo. |
| Johanna Ward | 8 hrs 10 mins | Unabridged | Complete and solo. |
| Virginia McKenna | 7 hrs 58 mins | Unabridged | Complete and solo. |
| Flo Gibson | 7 hrs 24 mins | Unabridged | Complete and solo. |
| Indira Varma | 8 hrs 25 mins | Unabridged | Complete and solo. |
| Michael A Lyons | 7 hrs 24 mins | Unabridged | Complete and solo. |
| Paul Gibson | 7 hrs 13 mins | Unabridged | Complete and solo. |
| Philippe Duquenoy | 7 hrs 26 mins | Unabridged | Complete and solo. |
| Cheryl Bassett | 8 hrs 59 mins | Unabridged | Complete and solo. |
| Cathi Colas | 8 hrs 17 mins | Unabridged | Complete and solo. |
| Juliet Stevenson | 2 hrs 15 mins | Abridged | ABRIDGED, at 31% of the shortest complete reading here. |
| Helena Bonham Carter | 2 hrs 50 mins | Abridged | ABRIDGED, at 39% of the shortest complete reading here. |
| Glenda Jackson | 3 hrs 2 mins | Abridged | ABRIDGED, an Argo Classics recording. |
| Barbara Rosenblat, Michael Crouch, Georgia Lee Schultz, John Jarvis | 1 hr 48 mins | Full-cast dramatisation | A dramatisation: "(Dramatized)" is in its title. |
| Harriet Walter, Beryl Reid and a full cast | 2 hrs 15 mins | BBC full-cast dramatisation | A BBC Children's Classics dramatisation with a full cast. |