Book Review – The Best of Intentions by Caroline Scott

About the Book

1932: When gardener Robert Bardsley arrives at Anderby Hall, an Elizabethan manor house in the Gloucestershire countryside, it is home to ‘Greenfields’, a community of artists and idealists.

Robert has been employed to revive Anderby’s famous roses and restore the topiary garden, but he also soon befriends the other residents: from colourful neighbour Trudie, who makes a formidable cocktail and keeps her late-fiancé’s ashes on the mantelpiece, to composer Daniel, recovering from the horrors of the Great War. The only person he can’t win over is Anderby’s schoolteacher, Faye, who finds him . . . perfectly vexing.

But just as Robert starts to feel at home, the residents discover that the old orchard has been sold to a property developer who has plans for an estate of Tudorbethan bungalows. Can they find a way to keep their creative community alive or will the new housing development put an end to the spirit of Greenfields?

Format: Paperback (416 pages) Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Publication date: 17th July 2025 Genre: Historical Fiction

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My Review

Gwendoline is the driving force behind the Greenfields community, centred around the now rather rundown Anderby Hall. The manor house has proved to be a money pit, eating up most of Gwendoline’s fortune. However it’s not just a place to pursue her ideals but somewhere she has a very personal connection to because of its use as a military hospital for wounded soldiers of the First World War. In particular, the restoration of the gardens to their former glory is something dear to her heart. More pragmatically, she hopes charging people to view the garden might be a way to restore the community’s economic fortunes. However not everyone feels this accords with Greenfield’s values, prinicipally Faye, Anderby’s schoolteacher.

Robert is excited at taking on the project of restoring the garden but arrives at Anderby with a degree of trepidation because he has something in his past he would rather not be discovered. Unfortunately Teddy, Gwendoline’s husband, is pretty good at sniffing out secrets and using them to his advantage. Robert finds himself drawn to Faye but wonders if he can overcome her animosity towards him.

I had Teddy down as a bounder from the start. I struggled to see what Gwendoline saw in him as he seemed more interested in spending her money than anything else. I can’t say I was upset when he got his just desserts, even if it was in an unexpectedly dramatic way.

For me, Daniel was the most fully rounded character. Still struggling with memories of the terrible things he experienced in the First World War, he finds solace in spending time in the grounds of Anderby, particularly in its ancient orchard. I could really appreciate his dismay at the prospect of its destruction to make way for a new housing estate.

Gwendoline’s decision to sell land to housing developers sets the community at odds. For some it’s simply too far from their original ideals putting the whole Greenfields project at risk. But perhaps it’s also an opportunity for a reset, to acknowledge that change is inevitable and must be embraced, allowing the book to end on an uplifting note.

I definitely recommend reading the Author’s Note which provides historical background and sources of inspiration for some aspects of the book. For example, the rise of utopian communities in the wake of the First World War and the explosion in housebuilding in order to fulfil Lloyd George’s promise of ‘a fit country for heroes to live in’. The author also points out some interesting parallels with contemporary issues.

I enjoyed The Best of Intentions but, if I’m honest, missed the emotional intensity of the author’s previous books, particularly The Photographer of the Lost and When I Come Home Again.

I received a review copy courtesy of Simon & Schuster via NetGalley.

In three words: Amiable, engaging, touching
Try something similar: Small Bomb at Dimperley by Lissa Evans

About the Author

After completing a PhD in History, at the University of Durham, Caroline Scott worked as a researcher in Belgium and France. She has a particular interest in the experience of women during the First World War, in the challenges faced by the returning soldier, and in the development of tourism and pilgrimage in the former conflict zones. Caroline lives in southwest France and is now writing historical fiction for Simon & Schuster UK and William Morrow.

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