Frances Hodgson Burnett, (1849 - 1924) was an English-American playwright and author. She is best known for her children's stories, The Secret Garden, A Little Princess, and Little Lord Fauntleroy. After her father's death in 1854 her family lived in poverty in the Victorian slums of Manchester. After moving to Tennessee her mother died in 1867, which made Frances the sole support of the younger children. It was at this point that she began to write. Miss Belinda Bassett's niece arrives in a small England town. Octavia Bassett arrives from Nevada with her trunks of fancy clothes, diamond jewelry, and gold coins for the poor. She soon becomes friends with Lucia Gaston, the repressed granddaughter of the village matriarch, Lady Theobald.