The Gardener is a very thoughtful novel, and whilst it isn’t my favourite of Vickers’ books, it does give one rather a lot to consider.

Now she was standing still and the world was going forward, but it did not concern her - in no way or relation did it touch her. One of the great strengths of The Gardener is that it shows how the natural instinct of children is to look towards solutions. Ultimately, the mystical charms of the natural world provide Hassie with a kind of healing as she sees the possibilities of new life and becomes less concerned with winning the approval of others.Late in the summer of 1935, Lydia Grace's parents are out of work, and to help make ends meet they send Lydia Grace to live with Uncle Jim, a baker in the city. If this were an American book, it would be a Debbie Macomber; but it’s Vickers’ uniquely British gentleness that makes The Gardener a comfortable, comforting read. When I was a jejune, know-it-all, twenty-year-old student, I would have been scornful of a novel such as this. S alley Vickers’s new novel begins with a woman in her forties moving to a run-down cottage in the Shropshire village of Hope Wenlock.

If you are new to gardening, it can seem daunting - with Latin names, various soil types and seasonal requirements, it feels like a lot to learn. In Salley Vickers’s eleventh novel, The Gardener, the garden is a powerful metaphor for the self, its paradoxical status as both cultivated and wild reflecting the two poles of discipline and indulgence between which we shuttle as we negotiate our emotional lives. The first half of The Gardener is very much like the long, hot summer of 2020, in that virtually nothing happens. Then she took her place in the dreary procession that was impelled to go through an inevitable series of unprofitable emotions.

In the few books of Vickers’ which I have read to date, I have always felt that the author has an unwavering sense of empathy toward her characters. By Rudyard Kipling E very one in the village knew that Helen Turrell did her duty by all her world, and by none more honourably than by her only brother's unfortunate child. Being the child of atheists, I had no experience of organised religion but children, I believe, have an innate spiritual inclination and I was perfectly sure that the tree was conscious and that tree sprites lived within its distinctive bark, and watched over me and assisted and promoted my creative efforts . I was sure at around the halfway point that my rating for The Gardener would be higher, but I personally found the ending extremely unsatisfactory; in my opinion, it did not tally with the characters’ behaviour up to that point, and it felt rather rushed.

It is a shame, I think, that Vickers chose to set it in 2019; I can imagine its events unfolding in the summer of last year with virtually no changes necessary other than masks on Hassie and Murat as they wander around the garden centre. It tells the story of an old man in his overgrown garden and the problems that begin when his neighbour offers to lend a hand. The gardener of the novel’s title is Murat, a local Albanian immigrant hired by Hassie to help her tame the cottage’s neglected grounds.With a colorful cast of characters all brought to life by illustrator Lucille Clerc, this is a botanical journey of beauty and brilliance. Whether you want to grow your own veg, create a child-friendly garden, connect with nature, or make the most of houseplants, Monty will help you unlock your space's potential, showing you what, where and when to plant. It's a refreshingly accessible approach that will help you build a garden which best serves your needs and enhances your lifestyle. Finding it rather a large task, she asks for the help of Murat, an Albanian refugee, who has largely been ‘made to feel out of place amongst the locals’. The books featured on this site are aimed primarily at readers aged 13 or above and therefore you must be 13 years or over to sign up to our newsletter.

One of the main criticisms was that the ending appeared to be ‘out of kilter’ with what had gone before it. An accessible ode to gardening sprinkled with Tamsin Westhorpe’s favourite plants, timely reminders and accounts of the twists and turns of planting through the seasons. The officer would have checked it, out of one of his many books; but a large Lancashire woman thrust between them and bade him tell her where she might find her son, who had been corporal in the A. I have listed Salley Vickers as a "new to me author" although I'm pretty sure I have read one title by her at least, but possibly decades ago.Finding that it had sound views on protecting its own flanks and could dig, a prudent Commander stole it out of its own Division, under pretence of helping to lay telegraphs, and used it round Ypres at large.