Frances Hodgson Burnett was an English-American writer. She is famous for her stories for children ('The Secret Garden', 'Little Princess', and 'Little Lord Fauntleroy'). After Frances's father died in 1854 her family became poor, and had to live in the Victorian slums of Manchester. In 1867 they moved to Tennessee. Mother's death made Frances the only person to support the younger children. That was the reason why she started writing. After her son Burnett died, the writer started thinking about life after death. She wrote about it in this cute and old-fashioned book. The 'White People' is the story of a young woman with extraordinary insight living as a semi-recluse in the Scottish Highlands. Here is a passage from the book: 'The first hour she was like a dead thing--aye, like a dead thing that had never lived. But when the hand of the clock passed the last second, and the new hour began, I bent closer to her because I saw a change stealing over her. It was not color--it was not even a shadow of a motion. It was something else. If I had spoken what I felt, they would have said I was light-headed with grief and have sent me away. I have never told man or woman. It was my secret and hers. I can tell you, Ysobel. The change I saw was as if she was beginning to listen to something--to listen'.