Book Description
Bill Alexander had no idea that his simple dream of having a vegetable garden and small orchard in his backyard would lead him into life-and-death battles with groundhogs, webworms, weeds, and weather; midnight expeditions in the dead of winter to dig up fresh thyme; and skirmishes with neighbors who feed the vermin (i.e., deer). Not to mention the vacations that had to be planned around the harvest, the near electrocution of the tree man, the limitations of his own middle-aged body, and the pity of his wife and kids. When Alexander runs (just for fun!) a costbenefit analysis, adding up everything from the live animal trap to the Velcro tomato wraps and then amortizing it over the life of his garden, it comes as quite a shock to learn that it cost him a staggering $64 to grow each one of his beloved Brandywine tomatoes. But as any gardener will tell you, you can't put a price on the unparalleled pleasures of providing fresh food for your family.
Customer Reviews:
Great book gift for green thumbs (and brown thumbs).......2007-08-09
I HATE gardening, but thoroughly enjoyed reading Alexander's odyssey of his quest to build his dream garden. Very funny account of epic battles with weeds, rodents, and bugs as he tries to prevent his little "hobby" from ruining his life. Your gardening friends will love this book (and non-gardeners will too!)
A tasty little story.......2007-08-02
His wife's insistence on an old fixer-upper of a house means the author can have the garden, orchard, and even meadow he's always dreamed. Once the house is livable--and everyone in town knows it has to be repaired to be livable--the owners start on the grounds. Landscape contractors, who are always late and leave their backhoe to winter in the author's yard, promise a garden to be proud of--and then bring plans for some very ordinary rectangles.
Not to be daunted, Alexander picks heirloom plants to grow his produce. He is determined to have the same fruit and experiences he remembers from his father's gardening. Organic gardening should be easy when he has only four trees and a small garden. He can pluck off the hungry worms and organically protect his crops from predators of all types.
After learning how much time is involved in using the organic bug sprays--first you find the caterpillar, then you spray him--how much it costs to put in something other than grass walkways, and that some animals are not deterred by six thousand volts, he gets down to serious gardening.
His wife and children begin to question his sanity. His plants don't always grow the way he expected. Who knew growing roses would kill the corn? Sitting down to calculate the cost of his succulent heirloom tomatoes gives him a jolt he thought he'd only get from his electric fence. Did his dad really do it this way? Had he been hoodwinked about how much fun this all was? When did the hobby become a second job?
You needn't be a gardener to enjoy the humor in this book. The history of tomatoes and potatoes, and insights on the Anasazi Indians thrown in with ridding the garden of Superchuck, the groundhog, is true fun for the reading. Cultivated entertainment.
Armchair Interview says: Humor and hoeing, planting and waiting, bugs and bug sprays flow together to give you an enjoyable read.
Enjoyable memoir of a man and his garden.......2007-07-26
I am by no means a gardening expert, more of a beginner, but I enjoyed this memoir of one man's obsession with and relationship with his garden. I found it informative and funny. I took as much what not to do, as what to do, from the book. I mean, you can see the excessiveness of his spending and learn from it as much as you can learn from the ways he fights pests on his fruit trees. I read books like this for inspiration and I was inspired by his mistakes and successes. All in all it was an enjoyable light read.
For the Gardening Obsessed.......2007-07-26
This book speaks to every obsessed gardener in America. The majority of the public, however, won't get it. They put in a few pansies, water them when they think of it and go on with their lives. But a few of us have an insatiable drive to work the soil, wage a constant war with the elements and beat off ravaging beasts just so we can be overwhelmed with too much produce.
Our neighbors think we're nuts--why would someone put themselves through all that labor and expense to get something they could buy at the corner market for $0.85 a pound? (Yeah, well I don't get the mountain climbing thing either.)
I like Alexander's writing--it was cute and witty and perfectly illustrated a man trying to work in his career, family and home improvement projects around his gardening obsession. All 2,000 square feet of it.
Although organic gardeners will be disgusted with how often Alexander reaches for the spray can, most will be able to relate to his journey.
A really cute read but I can't review the recipes as I didn't try them out yet.
As an animal lover..........2007-06-28
... I too was distressed by the chapters where the authors obsession defies his place at the top of the food chain and his "logical" abilities. When the local fauna decide that his exorbitantly expensive garden is the local salad bar, he goes on the war path and attempts to destroy everything alive that is not a plant.
While this is somewhat disheartening, it is also illuminating. I place this book alongside ElectroBoy on my bookshelf, and alongside The Omnivore's Dilemma, because it makes such a natural segue between the two.
William Alexander is truly obsessed with his garden. What ought to be a nice, pleasant way to pass time and to get some exercise and food turns into a dangerous obsession, resulting in damage to his finances, his health, his psyche, and his marriage.
It is amusing, in parts, however.
Read it, if only to see what lengths people will go to in order to save their hobby. It is an interesting study, really. Probably not a book I will read again, but it is one that I will think of from time to time.
Harkius
Book Description
When California winemaker Jamie Gibson inherits Wickersham Priory, she moves to England to cultivate a new life on the massive 200-acre estate. But the once-grand gardens are now in disrepair, their overgrowth obscuring pathways and erasing buildings. Jamie vows to restore the gardens in honor of her benefactor, who happens to be a complete stranger.
She hires Lawrence Kingston, a retired professor of botany, to reproduce the gardens from their heyday. Unable to tame his curiosity, Lawrence begins investigating why Jamie was named heir to this vast fortune. His interest grows when he discovers the old Wickersham well that now holds human bones—and the truth of a long-ago murder.
Kingston’s meddling has tilled up the past, but when workers on their project keep turning up dead, he and Jamie must escape their present thorny situation…or they too risk being buried amidst the garden’s secrets.
Customer Reviews:
Loved the garden.......2007-05-20
I bought this book as it turned up as an amazon "recommended" book. Hey, I love gardens. I love English mysteries. What's not to like? The garden and the horticultural details were fascinating. I enjoyed the slow unfolding of the history of Major Ryder.
But it was not exactly an Agatha Christie. No real surprises about "whodunnit". No multiple likely suspects to keep you guessing. No plot twist at the end. The character who makes a suspicious entrance early in the book is really the only suspect. It's just a question of what happens until he's unmasked.
I also never quite understood why the heroine was so downright reluctant to try to determine why this vast English estate had been left to her by a total stranger. I can't believe she just moved over to England and took it on without, apparently, the least bit of curiousity about why it had been left to her. She even actively tried to discourage Kingston from investigating when be began looking on her behalf. That just never rang true, and I kept waiting for some surprise ulterior motive to arise, but it never did.
However I did like it well enough that I've gone and ordered the author's Blue Ross as well.
Garden Mystery.......2007-02-07
This is the second book (The Blue Rose was the first) with Lawrence Kingston as the amateur detective who mixes horticulture with crime solving. Jamie Gibson is an American woman who has inherited Wickersham Priory in Somerset, England. She hires Kingston to restore the estate's neglected gardens. In the underbrush, Kingston discovers a ruined chapel complete with a healing well, which turns out to contain human remains. Kingston investigates and a series of dire events--two deaths, a car accident, a rifled flat--keeps the plot moving, but it's the wealth of gardening description and the work trying to bring the neglected garden back to it's former glory that makes this book such an enjoyable read.
Elgin has an easy style and he doesn't overwhelm the reader with too much gardening information at the expense of the plot. Kingston is an "older" man with a wealth of life experiences and he makes for an appealing detective. There is a vague hint of possible attraction between him and Jamie, but at least in this book, nothing much comes of it. I'll look forward to reading the next Elgin book with the hope that the widower Kingston and Jamie reconnect.
--Well done and makes me want to see where the author goes from here--.......2007-01-21
THE LOST GARDENS is the second book in this series. The first book is THE BLUE ROSE.
To her surprise, Jamie Gibson, a young woman from California inherits Wickersham Priory, a huge old estate in England. Since she didn't know the owner, she doesn't know why the deceased Mr. Ryder left the estate to her. She's astounded by her good fortune and almost afraid to delve too much into the past.
The estate has over 200 acres of land and most of that is terribly over grown through decades of neglect. At one time, the gardens were known for their beauty and Jamie, in tribute to the Ryder family decides to restore the grounds and gardens to their former splendor.
She hires Lawrence Kingston, who had been the head research botanist at Edinburgh University. Lawrence is a retired widower and only takes jobs that pique his interest. After a visit to the jungle that used to be a garden, Lawrence agrees to take on the restoration. There are numerous ruins of buildings on the site and when Lawrence discovers some human bones in the old chapel, he wants to uncover all of the mysteries of Wickersham Priory.
I found the garden information to be very interesting and my favorite parts of the story. I learned a lot. The author, Anthony Eglin, has a background in horticulture and has co-produced some garden videos. His mystery could have been a little more exciting, but that said; I still enjoyed the story. I didn't find Jamie, the female character, to be believable but I liked the main character, Lawrence Kingston, and think the author has a great formula to continue on with more books in this series. I have the feeling that his stories will get better and better! I also intend to read his first book, THE BLUE ROSE.
Garden of good and evil and gardening and history and..........2006-07-11
The Lost Gardens, the second in a (hopefully) on-going series by Anthony Eglin picks up the story of Professor Lawrence Kingston following the murder and intrigue surrounding the discovery and theft of a unique blue rose, the Holy Grail of gardeners. This story is recounted in "The Blue Rose" and my review can be found in this previous post.
In this new story, Kingston is hired to restore a huge manor garden to its former glory after the property is inherited, unexpectedly and unexplainably, by a young, American woman. When a dis-used chapel is found on the property, complete with a skeleton in its well, Kingston is again involved in detective work, archeological mysteries and murder.
While not quite as action-packed as the first book, The lost Gardens is a grand combination of gardening lore, history, mystery and action-adventure. Kingston become even more likable than before, less curmudgeonly and might even be falling in love again.
Eglin gives a charming feel to the English countryside, despite the untoward events that occur and leads the reader down a wandering garden path to an exciting and satisfying conclusion.
I look forward to more books in this series that combine my interests in gardening and my love of a great mystery.
Mystery takes a back seat to gardening lore.......2006-06-08
This is Eglin's second "English Garden" mystery (the first being "The Blue Rose") and it is just as enjoyable. His books are reminescent of "tea cozies" but they are a slight elevation about that. The mystery is not particularly interesting, or suspensful for that matter, but Eglin makes up for that with his fascinating asides to gardening lore. Eglin comments that this book was inspired by "The Lost Gardens of Heligan," a true-life account of the discovery and uncovering of an estate garden in England. As retired botanist/amateur sleuth Lawrence Kingston and his client, Jamie Gibson, begin to rescue the overgrown garden at Wickersham Priory, the reader is treated to highly interesting details regarding gardening history, wine-making, Lawrence Johnson and his famous garden at Hidcote, and garden design. The book moves at a brisk pace and doesn't overstay its welcome. A fun read!
Average customer rating:
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In the Garden (Andrew Lost #4)
J.C. Greenburg
Manufacturer: Random House Books for Young Readers
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Similar Items:
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In the Kitchen (Andrew Lost #3)
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Under Water (Andrew Lost #5)
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In the Bathroom (Andrew Lost #2)
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In the Whale (Andrew Lost #6)
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On the Dog (Andrew Lost #1)
ASIN: 0375812806
Release Date: 2003-04-22 |
Book Description
Andrew, his cousin Judy, and super-smart robot Thudd hitch a ride out of the kitchen on the back of a fly and end up in the garden. The view is awfully nice from the head of a daisy, but time is running out. . . . They have to get back to the Atom Sucker and unshrink themselves before it’s too late!
Customer Reviews:
Matthew's review.......2006-02-13
I liked Andrew Lost--In the Garden. The book was about Andrew Lost getting lost in the garden. It was interesting how they got all of what they had to get done in exactly one hour. It was a little funny when the bugs did the work for them. I learned that there are tiny creatures in the dirt that help make soil. I would recommend this book.
Amazon.com
The Moravian monk and naturalist Gregor Mendel (1822-1884) labored quietly over the years in his abbey's garden, becoming known locally as a reliable meteorologist with an unusually green thumb. He was much more than that, of course, but his transforming experiments in what a later acolyte would call "genetics" were less well known. When he published the results of his many attempts to discover the mechanisms by which traits are passed from one generation to the next--in Mendel's case, in sweet peas--it was in the proceedings of a local scientific study group, and it would take nearly two decades before researchers in more august institutions would in turn discover Mendel's work and apply it to their own revolutionizing biology in the process.
Mendel's life was full of disappointments: he failed his qualifying examinations to teach high school several times, and he had trouble getting the scientific establishment of his day to take him seriously. In her lucid, often moving life of the great (and to all purposes self-taught) scientist, Robin Marantz Henig gives readers a view of the deeply religious man himself and of his work not only in the context of his time but also in light of recent developments in the constantly changing field of genetics. Taking issue with historians of science who have sought to discount Mendel's contributions to the field, she makes a well-defended claim that the monk in his small garden should be honored as a genius: "a man with a vision and the dedication to carry it to its brilliant, radical conclusion." Her book is a fitting, and very welcome, memorial. --Gregory McNamee
Book Description
In THE MONK IN THE GARDEN, award-winning author Robin Marantz Henig vividly evokes a little-known chapter in science, taking us back to the birth of genetics, a field that continues to challenge the way we think about life itself. Shrouded in mystery, Gregor Mendel's quiet life and discoveries make for fascinating reading. Among his pea plants Henig finds a tale filled with intrigue, jealousy, and a healthy dose of bad timing. She "has done a remarkable job of fleshing out the myth with what few facts there are" (Washington Post Book World) and has delivered Mendel's story with grace and glittering prose. THE MONK IN THE GARDEN is both a "classic tale of redemption" (New York Times Book Review) and a science book of the highest literary order.
Customer Reviews:
Propagates a pernicious misconception.......2006-11-29
Henig admittedly takes creative license to fill in some historical gaps, but she goes too far in propagating the misconception that Mendel sent a copy of his paper to Charles Darwin and that Darwin never read it. This urban legend (also brought up by other authors, such as Philip Kitcher) has made its way into newspaper articles and even textbooks. Catalogs of Darwins library in the early 1900's and later made no mention of Mendel's paper. Instead, a secondary source by Focke that mentioned Mendel was in Darwin's library, with the relevant pages uncut. See Andrew Sclater's 2003 article in the Georgia Journal of Science.
an odd little book.......2006-05-23
The Monk In The Garden by, Robin Marantz Henig, is a good book surrounded by a more boring, speculative one. At the core of this "novel," of course, was the explanation of the life and times of Gregor Mendel that helped procure his work on genetics. However, concealing this was much fluff, and unnecessary banter from Henig. The story of the monk growing his peas is a familiar one, to any person having passed a high school biology class, yet the purpose of this novel was to delve further into the unknown to see a side that we have never previously seen. While at times, Henig creates lighthearted descriptions of his rotund body, or widening face, for the most part she generalizes and presupposes that Mendel spent his time looking at objects out windows. For having lived so very long ago, it is amazing someone has been able to so accurately describe their daily life, and without ever meeting them as well? Now if she could only do the same for the many other illusive historical figures.
After reading some reviews, I too picked up on a certain religious bias held by Henig. She seemingly had two agendas in writing this book, both uncovering Mendel's life and work, and discrediting Christianity at any point possible.
While trying to be entertaining, Henig still uses excessively large vocabulary at points, and seems to be mixed up, and frazzled when it comes to her explaining important concepts. Still eagerly trying to explain genetics, Mendel, and how Christianity is wrong, she seems to forget that not everyone reading this book has a PhD in molecular biology. Henig seems to have failed as both a geneticist, and a novelist. Harsh, yet someone publishing a nonfiction book should be 110% sure everything is both correct, and at least factual based on primary resources, not made up chitchat. Plus its just plain boring.
Beneficial.......2005-10-13
I have spent 10 years teaching high school biology, and as such a person, I have a reverence for poor Mendel strugling in his garden.
This book gave me insights into his work, and the work of those who followed, and thus gave me new insight into how to communicate the humanity of these surprised giants to my students; possible giants of the future.
Grossly Inaccurate History--Not to be trusted.......2005-07-29
I'm surprised so many rated this book so highly. As I was reading, I kept asking myself why Henig included so many petty descriptions of Mendel, especially regarding his size: "widening face", "despite his girth", "rotund fellow like Mendel", "his fellow brethren might have been surprised to hear Mendel admit that there was something more important to him than eating", and when Henig calls Mendel "thick-fingered" I looked at the book's cover, and the hand-surgeon in me noticed--normal-sized fingers.
So why does Henig take so many cheap shots, in what's supposed to be a scholarly biography? I've seen plenty of pictures of Mendel, and his size is not conspicuous. Why the constant comments? Why the extensive discussions about the food in the monastery kitchen? And why go on and on about his health difficulties, far in excess of what would be required in a biography? Is there any reason for her almost snide remarks?
But then she did something that made her motives, if not agenda, obvious. On Page 41 she writes a single paragraph that can only be described as outright anti-Catholic bigotry:
" . . . Galileo Galilei, an Italian mathematics professor and devout Catholic (FALSE), faced excommunication (FALSE) for defending those same ideas (i.e., Copernicanism). (FALSE) Official doctrine had changed by then (FALSE) . . . but Galileo . . . refused to renounce his radical ideas (FALSE) . . .
Clearly, Henig is no historian:
1. Galileo was NOT a devout Catholic--he had a mistress who bore him 3 illegitimate children
2. Galileo did not face excommunication, and if Henig had done her homework, she would have known that excommunication was not an option given his crime BECAUSE-->
3. Galileo was NOT brought before the Inquisition for advocating Copernicanism. The Pope had told him NUMEROUS times that the Church did not think Copernicanism was heretical, and that Copernicanism was NOT the issue. The issue was Galileo's insistence that the Church change its interpretation of Scripture to conform to Galileo's REINTERPRETATIONS (at least one of which was wrong), which he had based on Copernicanism. The issue was Galileo's (erroneous) foray into Scriptural re-interpretation, not his astronomy.
4. The Church never took an "official" position on Copernicanism, so it was never an issue of "doctrine", and if Henig had read any reputable historian (Catholic/Protestant/Secular/whatever) she would have known that. (And, no John Paul II did NOT apologize for it in 1992).
5. Of course Galileo renounced his radical ideas. Every junior high school student in America knows he ABJURED--that's why he got house arrest--in his own villa outside Florence. (And no, it was not because he was afraid he'd be tortured--Inquisition rules forbid torture in someone Galileo's age, and he knew that).
One last one: Henig writes: "But natural scientists, if they are intellectually honest, often find themselves taking heretical positions on matters of creation and procreation, positions that challenge the very underpinnings of the Catholic Church." What dishonest nonsense. Here's a (very) brief list of internationally known historians who disagree with Henig: Lindberg, Numbers, Ferngren, Hedley Brooke, Shea, Rowland, Artigas (none of whom, to my knowledge, are Catholics themselves).
I agree with the previous reviewer(s) who mentioned Henig's obvious lack of accuracy when it comes to Christianity, but these errors are so glaring that either she is the most ignorant historian I've read in years, or she's an outright anti-Catholic/Christian bigot.
In either case, these biases/errors/inaccuracies make the book a waste of time. Not that it's not entertaining in parts, but if she can put so many errors/distortions into a single paragraph, the rest of the book is not to be trusted, on any level.
A thoroughly enjoyable read.......2004-12-31
This book is a wonderful historical account of how
Gregor Mendel, the father of modern genetics, came
about to describe the units of heredity.
The story is not only of one monk's personal struggle
to be recognized as a notable and respected scientist
and teacher, but also one of other scientists'
motivations (selfish and unselfish) for scientific
excellence and recognition.
Mendel had to overcome many social and political
challenges along the way to his discovery. Even after
his death, others fought difficult battles for him in
order for Mendel's thoughts to be accepted as the truth,
and to have Mendel himself recognized for his awesome
achievement. The man was truly a genius.
The author does an incredible job compiling the
information available on Mendel, as well as building a
timeline and social environment that allows the reader
to feel as if he/she were truly in the time of Mendel.
This was a thoroughly enjoyable read.
Now the warts...
1. I was a bit disappointed in not getting a more clear
discussion of the concepts Mendel was working with.
The fact that Mendel started out with a clear plan
of attack and then systematically developed a model
that later led to his theory well after he made his
observations was simply posed as a question of whether
he had foresight to do the experiments. It really doesn't
matter, but the answer is obviously yes. He knew what he
was doing. His scientific inquiry and application of
mathematical concepts to the study of heredity was
revolutionary, yet overlooked. He was not ahead of his
time, but rather his peers (and many scientists today)
were (and are) not thinking in Mendel's mathematical terms.
Others were preoccupied with the physical world, but
Mendel was only concerned with the mathematical.
Try to describe the law of gravity to someone and you
will get a nod of understanding as you drop an apple
to the ground. But, try to describe the same using a
mathematical equation...and you will get a blank look,
I guarantee it...just try it for yourself.
2. It seems as if the writer was working with a pencil
(or word processor) in one hand and a thesaurus in the
other. There are so many obscure vocabulary words that
it disrupts the flow of thought. This is just great if
you would like to use the book for teaching high school
students, which may actually be the intent - note the
reference to the author's teenage daughter - but is
very distracting to most other people. In addition, the
flow of thought is interrupted by many long parenthetical
discussions. Sometimes, you just lose sight of the topic.
If you put the book down in mid-chapter, be prepared to
re-read the whole chapter again. I ended up skimming the
entire book several times after reading through the first
time, so I was sure I was getting the whole story.
If you want to use the book as a study guide for the
vocabulary portion of the S.A.T., scrabble championship,
or for jeopardy, you may want to look up the definitions
of words from this short list beforehand:
acerbic
acumen
apogee
apostatic
banal
cacophony
chafed
churlish
comported
dioecious
ecclesiastical
erstwhile
exegesis
heretical
ignominy
imperious
macabre
marshalled
misanthrope
paean
parson
pedagogy
polemic
prescient
propitious
quixotic
rubric
slake
sojourn
stolidity
talisman
tweedy
vituperative
waggish
3. There are some obvious mistakes (typographical or
otherwise) that a geneticist would see immediately, but
may be confusing for someone trying to learn genetics
and reading this book. For example, on page 90, there is
a discussion of dominance that had me scratching my head,
and I have Ph.D. in molecular genetics! Also, on page
240, line 8, replace the word "phenotype" with "genotype"
and you will understand the authors point.
4. Skip the epilogue. Why pontificate about what might be
if Mendel had not done his gardening? Would we be better off
without atomic warheads? What about antibiotics? Hmmm....
Wait...the book is about something entirely different.
Average customer rating:
- A quick interesting read - I recommend it
- Gardens and Life
- Strangely wonderful
- Beautiful language, but leaves you wanting
- Courageous and poetic story of Longing, Loss and Faith.
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The Lost Garden
Helen Humphreys
Manufacturer: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
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ASIN: 0747568138 |
Book Description
Leaving London to grow food for the war effort, Gwen discovers a mysterious lost garden and the story of a love that becomes her own.
This word-perfect, heartbreaking novel is set in early 1941 in Britain when the war seems endless and, perhaps, hopeless. London is on fire from the Blitz, and a young woman gardener named Gwen Davis flees from the burning city for the Devon countryside. She has volunteered for the Land Army, and is to be in charge of a group of young girls who will be trained to plant food crops on an old country estate where the gardens have fallen into ruin. Also on the estate, waiting to be posted, is a regiment of Canadian soldiers. For three months, the young women and men will form attachments, living in a temporary rural escape. No one will be more changed by the stay than Gwen. She will inspire the girls to restore the estate gardens, fall in love with a soldier, find her first deep friendship, and bring a lost garden, created for a great love, back to life. While doing so, she will finally come to know herself and a life worth living.
Customer Reviews:
A quick interesting read - I recommend it .......2007-02-02
I enjoyed the story. I little peek into a time a past.
Gardens and Life.......2006-07-26
This is the story of a shy horticulturist in England during W.W. II, who leaves her labortory to direct a team of Land Girls, who grow vegetables for the war effort. Her personal growth is perceived and entwined with her relationship with garden plants. A pleasure to read for anyone who loves plants. Suzanne Love Harris
Strangely wonderful.......2005-01-17
This is a nice quick read, but it isn't pointless. The book opened my eyes to a lot of things that, even though the book takes place in the 1940s, still pretain to now. The end was sad, but it left me content in a akward way. I would say that if you have the time read the book because it is very well written, with a good story to back it.
Beautiful language, but leaves you wanting.......2004-04-26
This is a quick read and is full of beautiful language and imagery. The characters are interesting and the discovery of the garden keeps the reader engaged. The intersection of real books is an interesting technique, gardeners and readers of Woolf won't be disappointed. The end comes rather suddenly, and leaves you wanting more. The garden's function in the end and the narrator's relationship to it is rather disappointing
Courageous and poetic story of Longing, Loss and Faith........2004-01-24
It is the summer of 1941. WWII makes London a more dangerous place to live every day as bombs destroy sections of the city. The main character is Gwen, a lonely 35-year-old woman living in London and working in a laboratory. Her occupation as horticulturist provides her the opportunity to volunteer to lead a Land Woman's Group - several young girls who will plant gardens for the good of the war effort on a beautiful estate somewhere in the English countryside. A group of young Canadian men live nearby on the estate as they await orders to be sent into combat.
Gwen discovers a secret garden that was created in honor of longing, loss and faith. She becomes friends with Jane who is waiting for news of her soldier fiancé reported missing. And she has an attraction to Raley, the CO of the Canadian men.
The language is poetic and often quite lovely. The story is pretty good, but not great. There are a few flaws in the novel. The voices of Gwen, Jane and Raley are too similar. I thought the novel started off a bit pretentious, but as it continued, I found myself admiring the turn of a phrase or a clever metaphor. The author seems to bear her soul in this novel and I found it refreshing and courageous. This book was short, but so full of sadness. This book will linger in my memory.
Book Description
Until World War I, the estate gardens of Heligan were one of the glories of Cornwall. This book tells the story of the restoration of these gardens after 70 years of neglect, against the backdrop of local opposition and a lack of funding.
Customer Reviews:
Been there, done that and bought the book!.......2002-07-31
I bought the book at Heligan. After reading it I found I wanted to go back and see it all again (not that easy as I live in Sweden). Found the story of the discoveries and the restoration fascinating, moving and descriptive. I just loved it. Should be read before you visit the gardens.
An Uneven Account of a Romantic Ruin.......2001-07-28
We all have a fascination with man-made works that lie in ruins. Rose Macauley wrote an entire book on "The Pleasure of Ruins." Think of the ruins of the Acropolis, all that white marble bleaching in the Athenian sun. But then, think of the Acropolis as it was when it was built-- its many statues covered with what we would consider gaudy paint. Which does the modern eye prefer? Somehow, the romance of ruins wins out, and it is the ruin of Heligan that seduces us rather than its restoration. Restoring the lost gardens of Heligan, in Cornwall, has been Tim Smit's enviable job for the past decade. Heligan "fell asleep" after WWI, when much of its gardening workforce was drafted to fight. Smit is at his best when he describes the eerie atmosphere of the overgrown gardens under their canopy of self-seeded trees. Ghosts haunted the gardens, spreading a creepy air, and Smit relates how he had to call in a vicar to exorcise them. Smit's account lags, though, in the many paragraphs devoted to the nitty gritty of dealing with camera crews, staffing the ticket booth and applying for various grants. Unfortunately, Smit's earnest writing would have greatly benefited from collaboration with a professional writer. While this book describes a wondrous project, Smit's writing is often tedious. Personalities don't quite emerge as clearly as certain plants do. Still, I'd recommend this book to any serious gardener. The book is nicely illustrated with many color photographs that evoke the romantic atmosphere of the ruins as well as show the beautifully-restored, productive gardens of today.
LOST GARDENS OF HELIGAN.......2001-02-11
This is not an actual review of LOST GARDENS OF HELIGAN. I would like to purchase the hard back version. NOT THE SOFT BACK... I see Amazon only has the soft back. I have the book here from my local library which is hard back and that is what I want to purchase. I have checked the major book stores in Los Angeles but can't find anyone that can order it for me. I really enjoyed reading about this magnificent gardens that the two men rescued. I plan on visiting the garden the next time I am in Cornwall.
Excellent.......1999-07-25
You will love this if you are interested in gardening. Especially old gardening tools which are a favorite of mine.
Absorbing.......1999-05-10
For anyone even remotely interested in gardens this is the book for you. A totally absorbing chronicle of the restoration of a unique Victorian garden in Cornwall, Great Britain. To think I once lived only 10 miles from it and never knew of its existence makes me want to make a return visit to Cornwall to see this magnificent restoration.
Book Description
A glorious record of some of England’s finest lost gardens, preserved in all their former splendor in 160 period photographs.
Customer Reviews:
The land of fantasy and fairy tale.......2006-08-01
Being such a splendid book, my only want is that it should be in colours. The book captures the spirit of each garden with pictures and words and it feels like reading a fairy tale.
It also captures an era lost to us now, of grand houses and parties, ladies in white dresses and men smoking cigars and the act of creating exactly the garden fantasy you want whatever the cost. Some are wild, some are amazing, some ar just beautiful but all very interesting and nostalgic to look upon.
Book Description
The Lost Gardens at Heligan sold more than 200,000 copies—and this new look at Britain’s most beloved garden examines one of its chief glories. Originally created to make the house they served self-sufficient, the still-productive kitchen gardens have since undergone a complete restoration under the guidance of Tom Petherick. He, with the help of a leading garden photographer, reveals how he went about his work, and how best to keep flowers, fruit, and vegetables: the entire output of a good garden. Packed with advice, hints, tips, and professional secrets, it is a must-have for any gardener.
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