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The House of Secrets
While staying with their aunt in an English seaside town, the Mallory children find a secret passage into the mysterious old house next door, where their efforts to help a strange girl lead to trouble and adventure.
187 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1963
3 people are currently reading
192 people want to read
About the author
Nina Bawden
64 books94 followersNina Bawden was a popular British novelist and children's writer. Her mother was a teacher and her father a marine.
When World War II broke out she spent the school holidays at a farm in Shropshire along with her mother and her brothers, but lived in Aberdare, Wales, during term time.
Bawden attended Somerville College, Oxford, where she gained a degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics.
Her novels include Carrie's War, Peppermint Pig, and The Witch's Daughter.
A number of her works have been dramatised by BBC Children's television, and many have been translated into various languages. In 2002 she was badly injured in the Potters Bar rail crash, and her husband Austen Kark was killed.
Bawden passed away at her home in London on 22 August 2012.
When World War II broke out she spent the school holidays at a farm in Shropshire along with her mother and her brothers, but lived in Aberdare, Wales, during term time.
Bawden attended Somerville College, Oxford, where she gained a degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics.
Her novels include Carrie's War, Peppermint Pig, and The Witch's Daughter.
A number of her works have been dramatised by BBC Children's television, and many have been translated into various languages. In 2002 she was badly injured in the Potters Bar rail crash, and her husband Austen Kark was killed.
Bawden passed away at her home in London on 22 August 2012.
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
May 25, 2022
At first we thought this was going to be too predictable. The Mallory children live in Africa and are suffering from the death of their mother when their father goes missing. They are sent to live with an aunt in England who runs a guest house. The house next door is deserted and full of secrets, once inhabited by their aunt and mother, they long to find a way in. I expect from the title we can all guess what happens next.
Although this does have some predictable elements and happy conclusions that may leave the more sceptical reader or listener rolling their eyes, there were some nice twists and turns, great characters and intriguing mysteries.
There are some enjoyable characters, I appreciated the way the children all had their own personalities and the intergenerational friendship was lovely.
I love stories about run-aways, orphans, attics, old photographs, old houses and particularly stories about children making a home so this ticked a lot of boxes for me. Although many elements were tied up neatly with happy outcomes at the end this story still had a lot going for it and one I know I would have absolutely loved as a child.
Although this does have some predictable elements and happy conclusions that may leave the more sceptical reader or listener rolling their eyes, there were some nice twists and turns, great characters and intriguing mysteries.
There are some enjoyable characters, I appreciated the way the children all had their own personalities and the intergenerational friendship was lovely.
I love stories about run-aways, orphans, attics, old photographs, old houses and particularly stories about children making a home so this ticked a lot of boxes for me. Although many elements were tied up neatly with happy outcomes at the end this story still had a lot going for it and one I know I would have absolutely loved as a child.
August 1, 2022
After an idyllic upbringing in Kenya three young children -- John, Mary and Ben Mallory -- suddenly lose their mother, only to be sent to a bleak seaside resort in England to stay with their 'disagreeable' Aunt Mabel, the landlady of a boarding house. To the trauma of losing one parent is added the mysterious disappearance of their father, a complete change of environment and the ministrations of a relative who is not only distant but seemingly resentful.
Bewildering as their new life is, there are further mysteries: how does Aunt Mabel survive when lodgers are few and far between and the two she does have appear not to pay rent? Why did their aunt have to move from a grander house next door, and are the rumours of a secret passage between the two buildings based on reality? And does one of the children truly see a face at the attic window next door or is it their imagination?
This, the earliest of Nina Bawden's books for children, has an assured touch and a strong narrative, the action tipping over from one fraught incident into another until the final resolutions bring the story to a satisfying conclusion, even though it's a close-run thing. This Puffin edition has a note that when republished in 1979 the opening chapters were shortened, but nothing essential appears to have been lost in the condensing.
Bawden accurately captures the sense of disorientation that the young must feel when uprooted from what they are used to: she achieved something similar in Carrie's War , about child evacuees during the war, and in Off the Road , a dystopia set in the Welsh Marches. I myself remember that feeling of strangeness when I moved -- at roughly the same age and period (in 1958, in fact) -- from Hong Kong to a city in the West Country.
But the children are both resourceful and resilient, each with their own distinctive personality: one curious, another serious and cautious, the last confidently sociable. The various adults are depicted from the Mallory trio's point of view, their motives and mood changes for the most part hard to fathom; and there is, additionally, the enigma of the face at the window to solve.
I'm guessing the town of Henstable, reached by train from London, is somewhere on the North Sea coast, like Whitstable in Kent: "It was dark and cold and the wind sliced through their thin clothes like a sharp knife." And yet in amongst the drudgery of Britain's postwar years there are signs of positivity, with intimations of a flowering of arts in the resort: cheerful Mr Agnew, one of the lodgers, is a sculptor, the other lodger Miss Pin, old and bird-like, has a room full of curios and treasures, and their new acquaintance Victoria turns out to be a promising young pianist.
Though no conventional fantasy there is the thrill of that underground passage, a portal to access an unknown world, what John calls the House of Secrets. Not as magical as the back of a wardrobe nor as adventurous as a castle tunnel on an island, Bawden's concept is of an Aladdin's cave of a house crammed full of paintings, sculptures and objets d'art. She has created a limited environment in which to place the human drama, one in which it takes a while for some adults to realise that, at heart, what the children need is love and understanding.
Bewildering as their new life is, there are further mysteries: how does Aunt Mabel survive when lodgers are few and far between and the two she does have appear not to pay rent? Why did their aunt have to move from a grander house next door, and are the rumours of a secret passage between the two buildings based on reality? And does one of the children truly see a face at the attic window next door or is it their imagination?
This, the earliest of Nina Bawden's books for children, has an assured touch and a strong narrative, the action tipping over from one fraught incident into another until the final resolutions bring the story to a satisfying conclusion, even though it's a close-run thing. This Puffin edition has a note that when republished in 1979 the opening chapters were shortened, but nothing essential appears to have been lost in the condensing.
Bawden accurately captures the sense of disorientation that the young must feel when uprooted from what they are used to: she achieved something similar in Carrie's War , about child evacuees during the war, and in Off the Road , a dystopia set in the Welsh Marches. I myself remember that feeling of strangeness when I moved -- at roughly the same age and period (in 1958, in fact) -- from Hong Kong to a city in the West Country.
But the children are both resourceful and resilient, each with their own distinctive personality: one curious, another serious and cautious, the last confidently sociable. The various adults are depicted from the Mallory trio's point of view, their motives and mood changes for the most part hard to fathom; and there is, additionally, the enigma of the face at the window to solve.
I'm guessing the town of Henstable, reached by train from London, is somewhere on the North Sea coast, like Whitstable in Kent: "It was dark and cold and the wind sliced through their thin clothes like a sharp knife." And yet in amongst the drudgery of Britain's postwar years there are signs of positivity, with intimations of a flowering of arts in the resort: cheerful Mr Agnew, one of the lodgers, is a sculptor, the other lodger Miss Pin, old and bird-like, has a room full of curios and treasures, and their new acquaintance Victoria turns out to be a promising young pianist.
Though no conventional fantasy there is the thrill of that underground passage, a portal to access an unknown world, what John calls the House of Secrets. Not as magical as the back of a wardrobe nor as adventurous as a castle tunnel on an island, Bawden's concept is of an Aladdin's cave of a house crammed full of paintings, sculptures and objets d'art. She has created a limited environment in which to place the human drama, one in which it takes a while for some adults to realise that, at heart, what the children need is love and understanding.
December 18, 2013
Considering I was the child who spent hours banging at the basement paneling in my parents' house, hoping to find a hidden spring that would unlock a hitherto-undiscovered chamber, I would have adored Nina Bawden's The Secret Passage. A number of themes in this children's novel are old-fashioned enough that they wouldn't have been amiss in an E. Nesbit classic like The Railway Children—a trio of youths who've lost a parent, a forced relocation to somewhere exotic and strange, the titular secret passage, a number of adults who need the children's intervention to set things right, a lost child, and even a runaway princess of sorts.
Bawden's considerable skill turns all these somewhat hoary tropes on their head. The exotic location is dreary London, while the children's original home is an Africa to which they've become thoroughly acculturated. The secret passage itself isn't much of a secret; it's simply behind a door. The lost child isn't lost—at least not in the way the children think. And the princesse lointaine is one of the most unapologetically disagreeable brats in literature.
It's Bawden's playfulness with these vintage themes, and her willingness to be either humorous or sentimental in equal parts, that makes The Secret Passage a fun read . . . even for an adult like myself, who never quite got over the urge to rap on paneling, hoping to hear a hollow sound beyond.
Bawden's considerable skill turns all these somewhat hoary tropes on their head. The exotic location is dreary London, while the children's original home is an Africa to which they've become thoroughly acculturated. The secret passage itself isn't much of a secret; it's simply behind a door. The lost child isn't lost—at least not in the way the children think. And the princesse lointaine is one of the most unapologetically disagreeable brats in literature.
It's Bawden's playfulness with these vintage themes, and her willingness to be either humorous or sentimental in equal parts, that makes The Secret Passage a fun read . . . even for an adult like myself, who never quite got over the urge to rap on paneling, hoping to hear a hollow sound beyond.
August 5, 2018
Also published as "House of Secrets."
It was an OK summer read. I begin to see that Bawden's basic framework is taking kids from their normal environment with parents and sending them off to unknown eccentric relatives in creepy houses. I enjoyed it until the end brought too many felicitous events to be credible, one right after the other, like piling all the sweet decorations you have in the cupboard on the thick, sticky colonnade icing on top of plain vanilla cake. If she had held back the urge to go quite as far as she did, I would have given it at least four stars. As it was I was rolling my eyes by the end. She had enough "happy endings" here for about four books. Overkill.
I also wish that Miss Pin's story had been developed more--who were the Enemies, was there any truth to that part of her stories, or just persecution mania?
It was an OK summer read. I begin to see that Bawden's basic framework is taking kids from their normal environment with parents and sending them off to unknown eccentric relatives in creepy houses. I enjoyed it until the end brought too many felicitous events to be credible, one right after the other, like piling all the sweet decorations you have in the cupboard on the thick, sticky colonnade icing on top of plain vanilla cake. If she had held back the urge to go quite as far as she did, I would have given it at least four stars. As it was I was rolling my eyes by the end. She had enough "happy endings" here for about four books. Overkill.
I also wish that Miss Pin's story had been developed more--who were the Enemies, was there any truth to that part of her stories, or just persecution mania?
January 21, 2016
Synopsis:
The House of Secrets was written by Nina Bawden and was published in 1963 in England under the title The Secret Passage. The novel follows three siblings who have to move to Enlgland to live with their Aunt Mabel after their mother dies. Aunt Mabel lives in a boarding house and while living there, the children discover a secret passageway leading to the big house next door. This discovery leads them to discover a few different secrets.
Storyline:
The storyline was really simple and I did not find it particularly interesting or engaging.
Setting:
The House of Secrets is set in England in a boarding house and the house next door to that. The setting was ok, but not exactly great.
Characters:
The characters were pretty good. The book is short, so I didn’t feel like I got to know the characters really well, although they were all quite good and quirky. My favorite character was the youngest of the three siblings , a little boy named Ben.
Did I Like It?:
I sort of liked it I guess. This book was just ok for me. It was a cute and easy read, but there wasn’t anything special about it. I read this book when I was kid, so this was a reread for me. I didn’t remember it at all though, so there wasn’t really any nostalgia.
Do I Recommend It?:
Not really, at least not to adults. I feel like this is a children’s novel that is truly best enjoyed by children. I’m pretty sure this book is out of print as well, so it wouldn’t be easy to get anyways.
The House of Secrets was written by Nina Bawden and was published in 1963 in England under the title The Secret Passage. The novel follows three siblings who have to move to Enlgland to live with their Aunt Mabel after their mother dies. Aunt Mabel lives in a boarding house and while living there, the children discover a secret passageway leading to the big house next door. This discovery leads them to discover a few different secrets.
Storyline:
The storyline was really simple and I did not find it particularly interesting or engaging.
Setting:
The House of Secrets is set in England in a boarding house and the house next door to that. The setting was ok, but not exactly great.
Characters:
The characters were pretty good. The book is short, so I didn’t feel like I got to know the characters really well, although they were all quite good and quirky. My favorite character was the youngest of the three siblings , a little boy named Ben.
Did I Like It?:
I sort of liked it I guess. This book was just ok for me. It was a cute and easy read, but there wasn’t anything special about it. I read this book when I was kid, so this was a reread for me. I didn’t remember it at all though, so there wasn’t really any nostalgia.
Do I Recommend It?:
Not really, at least not to adults. I feel like this is a children’s novel that is truly best enjoyed by children. I’m pretty sure this book is out of print as well, so it wouldn’t be easy to get anyways.
February 8, 2022
Really enjoyed it, has great characters and some great twists and turns.
July 27, 2017
The more work of Bawden’s which I read, the more I am beginning to favour her children’s stories over her adult offerings. The last couple of the latter which I have read have been thoroughly disappointing. I was a little apprehensive when I began The Secret Passage, but I very much enjoyed it. The story is relatively short (only 155 pages in the lovely old Puffin edition I have), but it is so well written. The relatively simple story – three children living in Africa suddenly have to move to England to live with her aunt after their mother passes away and their father is taken ill – has somehow been rendered unpredictable in terms of what one might expect will happen. It reminded me a little of Tom’s Midnight Garden, The Secret Garden, and Enid Blyton’s mystery stories. A lovely, lovely book which brought a smile to my face, and which is sure to delight even the fussiest young reader.
June 17, 2025
This is a "kindle book". My kindle is something I keep in my bag for emergencies when I need something to read, and because these reading emergencies only last a few minutes usually I can't read anything too difficult to concentrate on. So lately I have been re-reading children's books. I actually never read this one but looked for something by Nina Bawden. I think she's amazing at describing children. The plot in this one probably was a bit predictable but the characters were great and I loved the description of the African childhood before the children come to England. There is a great deal of emphasis on the importance of kindness.
June 1, 2019
I like to lose myself in a children's novel after ploughing through literary sludge e.g. Jane Austen...for some light relief...& this tale from 1963 does the job...as ever with Nina Bawden. The writing is perfectly-pitched at young adults & there are no wizards or dragons...just realistic, interesting adult characters & children who behave like normal children...with their imaginations given their head in this story of widows & orphans who find mutual support in troubled times...& it all ends on a positive note. Now...back to the grind of great literature & ribbons on bonnets & Bennets!!
August 1, 2021
Some of the details of childhood in Kenya may be rather dated and problematic to later readers, but this is a fine early story in which NB shows her skill at showing children understanding the world through the adventure stories they were raised on, and starting to grasp the adult complexities they cover over. For more, see here: https://discontinuednotes.com/2021/07...
December 1, 2022
This was the first novel I ever read (so long ago). As a child, reading was a struggle for me and this was the first book I picked up that I sailed through and was able to clearly visualise what I was reading about. Fond memories of this book.
August 24, 2021
Nice little kids book. Good story.
March 14, 2023
Nina Bawden was one of the authors of my childhood. Greatly enjoyed revisiting her during my DST hangover/flareup.
January 14, 2017
I think I must have read this before -- and either it was very long ago, or I was particularly unwell at the time, because every aspect of this story is something I had already half-constructed into what I thought was an original idea of my own. Nope! Just something forgotten from childhood lurking in my subconscious: a leopard swept away on a tree branch in a flash flood, a huge friendly sculptor named Abe who lives in the garden shed, a lonely aunt with a tragic past in a rickety old boarding house on the English coast. All excellent things.
With all children's literature of this era comes a huge warning in flashing lights for the typical sickening gender norms, and also the shockingly casual imperialism. In the best of these novels, the former isn't so prevalent. I think we can say that for "The Secret Passage". Yes, a few lines definitely made me cringe, but overall I found the children to be quite distinct from each other and fleshed out as individuals without resorting too heavily to sexist tropes. Ben in particular stole my heart -- but then again, anyone who pays even the slightest bit of attention to my reading trends will know I love a good stubborn, headstrong, argumentative child protagonist, and Ben just fits that model so perfectly, with the added bonus of being utterly adorable.
The imperialism, though. The imperialism. It's staggering how it always manages to rear its ugly head, no matter what I expect going into a story. Often it's India that gets the brush of mysticism and misplaced British nostalgia, but in this story it's Africa. Because don't you know children, Africa is a magical land where mother and father lived in their own special bungalow separate from the mud huts and we children had fourteen servants who doted on us and we never had to lay the table. If only mother hadn't died of dysentery! Honestly, name me one British children's author from 1850-1980 who doesn't big up the Mystical Exotic Lands That Definitely Belong To Us.
I'm becoming increasingly aware that when the time comes for reading any of my childhood favourites to my future kids, it'll have to be coupled with a very long and very solemn history lesson.
With all children's literature of this era comes a huge warning in flashing lights for the typical sickening gender norms, and also the shockingly casual imperialism. In the best of these novels, the former isn't so prevalent. I think we can say that for "The Secret Passage". Yes, a few lines definitely made me cringe, but overall I found the children to be quite distinct from each other and fleshed out as individuals without resorting too heavily to sexist tropes. Ben in particular stole my heart -- but then again, anyone who pays even the slightest bit of attention to my reading trends will know I love a good stubborn, headstrong, argumentative child protagonist, and Ben just fits that model so perfectly, with the added bonus of being utterly adorable.
The imperialism, though. The imperialism. It's staggering how it always manages to rear its ugly head, no matter what I expect going into a story. Often it's India that gets the brush of mysticism and misplaced British nostalgia, but in this story it's Africa. Because don't you know children, Africa is a magical land where mother and father lived in their own special bungalow separate from the mud huts and we children had fourteen servants who doted on us and we never had to lay the table. If only mother hadn't died of dysentery! Honestly, name me one British children's author from 1850-1980 who doesn't big up the Mystical Exotic Lands That Definitely Belong To Us.
I'm becoming increasingly aware that when the time comes for reading any of my childhood favourites to my future kids, it'll have to be coupled with a very long and very solemn history lesson.
February 10, 2014
Nina Bawden’s “The House of Secrets”, the same thing as "The secret Passage", kicks off with a trio of children from Kenya who arrive in England, curious of the lives lived there by the seemingly foreign people, which include their Aunt Mabel, with whom they are living with and help in her daily activities. Later, their curiosity leads them into questioning the abandoned house they call the “House of Secrets”.
I take interest in this book as it gives the reader a sense of suspense leading up to the next discovery, one after another, with much of it focusing on this ‘House of Secrets’, the seemingly abandoned house next door that the children’s Aunt Mabel had lived in as a child. The house is seen as dark and seemingly untouched in many parts of the house for a large period of time, and offers the reader a very well-drawn mental picture of what it holds. I recommend this book to those who are searching for mystery in a busy setting.
I take interest in this book as it gives the reader a sense of suspense leading up to the next discovery, one after another, with much of it focusing on this ‘House of Secrets’, the seemingly abandoned house next door that the children’s Aunt Mabel had lived in as a child. The house is seen as dark and seemingly untouched in many parts of the house for a large period of time, and offers the reader a very well-drawn mental picture of what it holds. I recommend this book to those who are searching for mystery in a busy setting.
May 19, 2008
Synopsis copied from alibris.com: After their mother dies, siblings John, Mary, and Ben are forced to leave their home in Africa and move in with their Aunt Mabel. As the siblings attempt to adjust to life with their aunt, they befriend their troubled next-door neighbor and find themselves caught up in a dangerous adventure.
This is a young adult book I read a year or two ago; it was interesting and well written, enjoyable for an adult.
This is a young adult book I read a year or two ago; it was interesting and well written, enjoyable for an adult.
September 23, 2014
It is an excellent story. It's very intitutive and thoughtful. I love how the author explores the children's personailty. I love the old lady Miss Pin. Also all the delightful characters you meet are well developed. Althought it is a short story it might have been better if it had a stronger ending but otherwise I am looking forward to her other books.
April 3, 2011
3 1/2 stars. Love the beginning in Kenya, which reminded me that I did so much of my learning about the world from reading novels as a child.
Want to read
June 1, 2013waw
October 31, 2016
Also called The House of Secrets
December 6, 2016
Nina Bawden's characters are so fresh and ferocious; I just love them. Her work seems to me so modern, or perhaps timeless is a better descriptor.
March 12, 2020
B. fiction, children's fiction, grade 4, mystery, adventure, England, Weekly Reader Children's Book Club, from stash, keep
Read
October 31, 2018When the aunt melted, so did I. Best of luck to Been, the boy of means.
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews