Despite its scant concern with the world outside Hope Wenlock, The Gardener’s deep ethical commitment to the “natural wildness” of people has profound political implications. The house offers her healing, in a way, allowing her to pour some of her energy into discovering the history of Much Wenlock, and the nature which now surrounds her.

When my family moved to London from Stoke-on-Trent, we moved into a flat in my godmother’s house in Chiswick and from that time on, because of the source of my name I was known to my godparents as Salley Gardens and to the end of her life my godmother addressed her many letters to me under that name. In a few years Michael took his place, as accepted as Helen had always been - fearless, philosophical, and fairly good-looking. Rampant weeds” “invade” the flower beds, “vicious-looking nettles” “await” their victims and “evil yellow fungi” “bracelet” the trees. Relationships are worth embarking upon because – not in spite – of the awful, untameable wildness of other people. Not many picture books can be defined as true classics, yet this is one of the few that belong to the select group.The man lifted his eyes and looked at her with infinite compassion before he turned from the fresh-sown grass toward the naked black crosses. As her plants in window boxes start to bloom and even radishes, onions and lettuce emerge to decorate the building windows, Lydia Grace becomes known by her new nickname - the gardener.

Little time is spent developing Murat’s character and the descriptions of him often speak to stereotypes: he is cautious, diligent, deferential and mostly silent; he has ‘dazzling teeth’ and ‘topaz eyes’, uses formal language and misunderstands British idioms. The agony of being waked up to some sort of second life drove Helen across the Channel, where, in a new world of abbreviated titles, she learnt that Hagenzeele Third could be comfortably reached by an afternoon train which fitted in with the morning boat, and that there was a comfortable little hotel not three kilometres from Hagenzeele itself, where one could spend quite a comfortable night and see one's grave next morning.Hassie is haunted by memories of two men: her recently deceased father and her former lover, Robert, a married man with whom she had an affair.

Naturally, as the economy starts to recover in May 1936, Lydia Grace informs her parents: "I saw Uncle Jim almost smile today. The cover and end sheets were beautiful, reminiscent of early 20th century books handed down to me by my grandmother. It tells the story of a young girl named Lydia Grace Finch brings her love of gardening to the big city where she goes to stay with her Uncle Jim when her father loses his job.For all the anxiety and understandable fear about me as I wrote this novel, my mood was strangely calm, always with a sense that all would be well if we could only attend better to our relationship with the natural world.