The two central activities in my life - alongside writing - have been reading and gardening.
Penelope Lively has always been a keen gardener. This book is partly a memoir of her own life in gardens: the large garden at home in Cairo where she spent most of her childhood,her grandmother's garden in a sloping Somerset field,then two successive Oxfordshire gardens of her own,and the smaller urban garden in the North London home she lives in today.
It is also a wise,engaging and far-ranging exploration of gardens in literature,from Paradise Lost to Alice in Wonderland,and of writers and their gardens,from Virginia Woolf to Philip Larkin.
From the azaleas at Manderlay to the ordered vegetable plots of Mr Mcgregor's garden,readPenelope Lively's recommendations of the best gardens in literature.
Publisher: Penguin Books LtdISBN: 9780241982181Number of pages: 208Weight: 149 gDimensions: 198 x 129 x 13 mm
MEDIA REVIEWS
'Rich and unusual,this is a book to treasure. Few recent gardening books come anywhere close to its style,intelligence and depth. Moves between Lively's own horticultural life and a broad history of gardening'- Alex Preston,TheObserver
'Exquisite and original'- The Daily Telegraph
'A gentle,scholarly progress through the lives and works of Penelope Lively's favoured authors - from Jane Austen to Beatrix Potter,Philip Larkin to Tom Stoppard'- The Times
'Wonderful. A manifesto of horticultural delight'- Literary Review
'Beautiful. Perfect for literary garden lovers'- Good Housekeeping
'A perfect bedside book. In part it's a memoir of the gardens in Lively's life,starting with the exotic Egyptian garden of her childhood and continuing up to her small present-day garden in a north London square'- Sunday Express
'A gentle survey of the garden's place in Western culture,which morphs into a personal meditation on time,memory and a life well lived'- i
Penelope Lively
An award-winning British novelist,short story writer and children's writer,Penelope Lively was born and brought up in Cairo before moving to Britain in 1945. The author of more than forty novels,her notable children's works include The Ghost of Thomas Kempe,which won the Carnegie Medal,and A Stitch in Time,which won the Whitbread Children's Book Award as well as novels such Passing On,The Photograph,Family Album (which was shortlisted for the 2009 Costa Novel Award) and the autobiographical works: Oleander,Jacaranda and Ammonites and Leaping Fish and A House Unlocked. She has twice been nominated for the Booker Prize for The Road to Lichfield and According to Mark and won the award in 1987 with Moon Tiger.
Visit the Penelope Lively author page
Kommentar