Life in the Garden A BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week 2017

'Wonderful. A manifesto of horticultural delight' Literary Review 'Beautiful. Perfect for literary garden lovers' Good Housekeeping 'Rich and unusual, a book to treasure. Few recent gardening books come anywhere close to its style, intelligence and depth' Observer '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. 'Exquisite and original' Daily Telegraph '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 'Scholarly bedtime reading' The Times , Books of the Year 'rich And Unusual, 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' Observer 'wonderful. A Manifesto Of Horticultural Delight' Literary Review 'beautiful. Perfect For Literary Garden Lovers' Good Housekeeping 'exquisite And Original' Daily Telegraph 'enchanting. Reading This Book Is Like Walking With A Wise, Humorous Guide Through A Series Of Garden Rooms . . . And Finding That Vistas Suddenly Open Out, On To History, Fashion, Politics, Reflections On Time And The Taming Of Nature' Tablet '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 'scholarly Bedtime Reading' The Times, Books Of The Year