A run-in with a young girl, Penny Lane (there are a lot of weird names in this book, it has to be said), creates a tipping point in the story, which is perhaps the only bit that doesn’t quite ring true. the descriptions of the garden were divine. they were easily the best part of the novel and i would‘ve enjoyed The Gardener more if it had actually focused on the Gardener part more. i don’t care that much about your lost lover! i want to know about the kingfisher and the flowers in your garden! the novel also perpetuated some harmful ideas about women‘s bodies and their value, and it portrayed romantic love as hugely sexual (at least for Hassie) which i found very boring and unimaginative. it comes across at Robert and Hassie‘s relationship being mostly physical, but then why would Hassie be unable to get over him? because there‘s just no way Robert was THAT good in bed. I loved this book. I usually don't read a book again but I would read this again. This is not because of the story which is quite slight, or the characters, some of whom are attractive but some less so, but because of the language. It is beautifully written with carefully chosen , almost poetic language. I loved the descriptions of nature, the garden, the sky and particularly the moon. The edition I read had a lovely cover too which perfectly fitted the story. There are several “gardeners” in this novel of pruning, engrafting, and self-growth: “I tried to wrench my life round into a new pattern,” Hassie says. She succeeds both naturally and supernaturally in a novel that notices the possibilities of healing among the fragilities of life.

The Gardener (Audio Download): Salley Vickers, Salley Vickers

Hassie plans to live there permanently, but Margot, who has a job in the city, will simply visit on weekends or stay over when she needs a respite from London life. The narrator speaks honestly and openly to herself about her physical and emotional feelings. We witness her growing self-awareness and fulfilment, through her garden — “my small private paradise which I felt honoured to share with the birds” — and through her connectedness with landscape, trees, animals, a snail, the weather, and through her many literary recollections, including Emily Brontë, T. S. Eliot, Hardy, Hopkins, Beatrix Potter, Shakespeare, and Wordsworth. Hassie is keen to integrate herself into village life and makes friends with the elderly and opinionated Phyllis Foot and also the recently widowed vicar Peter, also getting involved in the life of a young child called Penny who often hangs around the home.

Settling in the country Hass feels a connection to her father through the birds in the garden and the countryside. Through new friends in the village, she learns the history of the area, and more specifically their new home, Knight’s Fee. Hass explores the region’s significance with the early saints and pagan gods.

The Gardener by Salley Vickers | Goodreads

I loved this book at the beginning. It's a beautiful format, lovely William Morris endpapers and it starts off with such promise. It is books like this that make me wonder why I don't read more outside the crime fiction genre. Too much inside the genre competing for my attention I suppose. In Partnership with St Martin-in-the-Fields. This series of nine lectures is inspired by the words of Martin Luther during the Reformation. Distinguished speakers investigate those things in which we believe deeply – and for which we would be prepared to make a costly stand. As she works the garden in Murat's peaceful company, Hassie ruminates on her past life: the sibling rivalry that tainted her childhood and the love affair that left her with painful, unanswered questions. But as she begins to explore the history of the house and the mysterious nearby wood, old hurts begin to fade as she experiences the healing power of nature and discovers other worlds. In the ‘sprawling’ house, Hassie is left alone to tend the ‘large, long-neglected garden’. 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’.Profoundly moving, healing and wise, this is the perfect antidote to our urban anxiety' Joanne Harris, author of Chocolat The strength of this novel, for me, was SV’s ability to add so many layers to village life both good and bad: village gossip, narrow-mindedness, supporting the ‘locals’ by buying shrivelled fruit and bad art – all this tempered with the beauty and power of nature. The simply glorious descriptions of birds and flowers moving through the seasons just made this tale of the countryside sing for me. But as she begins to explore the history of the house and the mysterious nearby wood, old hurts begin to fade as she experiences the healing power of nature and discovers other worlds. Oh what a mix of emotions - I loved the cover. I loved the last few reads of SV. I loved the start of the book. By the middle I was enchanted, SV had written yet another triumph. But the end! Oh come on - I was completely lost, what was going on? I get it but I hated it. It really didn't work for me. SV had fallen from esteamed novalist to popularist fantasy nonsense. I am heartbroken. The characters I found particularly engaging and I loved the premise – the woman inheriting a tumbledown house in a rural area has all the hallmarks of a great fairytale. But my initial hopes for a modern fairytale with new lore, or deep lore or any kind of fresh thinking at all were disappointed.