Tag: NetGalley

#BookReview A Fenland Garden by Francis Pryor @HoZ_Books

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About the Book

A Fenland Garden is the story of the creation of a garden in a complex and fragile English landscape – the Fens of southern Lincolnshire – by a writer who has a very particular relationship with landscape and the soil, thanks to his distinguished career as an archaeologist and discoverer of some of England’s earliest field systems. It describes the imagining, planning and building of a garden in an unfamiliar and sometimes hostile place, and the challenges, setbacks and joys these processes entail.

This is a narrative of the making of a garden, but it is also about reclaiming a patch of ground for nature and wildlife – of repairing the damage done to a small slice of Fenland landscape by decades of intensive farming.

A Fenland Garden is informed by the empirical wisdom of a practising gardener (and archaeologist) and by his deep understanding of the soil, landscape and weather of the region; Francis’s account of the development of the garden is counterpointed by fascinating nuggets of Fenland lore and history, as well as by vignettes of the plantsman’s trials and tribulations as he works an exceptionally demanding plot of land.

Above all, this is the story of bringing something beautiful into being; of embedding a garden in the local landscape; and thereby of deepening and broadening the idea of home.

Format: ebook (352 pages) Publisher: Head of Zeus
Publication date: 6th July 2023 Genre: Nonfiction, Gardening

Find A Fenland Garden on Goodreads

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Hive | Amazon UK 
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My Review

As a fan of the TV programme Time Team, in which the author appeared for many years, and as a keen gardener who’s spent a fair amount of time trying to create a garden that’s both a haven for myself and my husband, and for wildlife, I was immediately drawn to this book. The beautiful cover was a definite draw as well.

The book details the process of transforming an area of neglected farmland into a garden, whilst also building a house. It’s a task that took patience, dedication, imagination, a few run-ins with the planning authorities and not a little hard graft by the author and his wife, Maisie. In the book the author describes the painstaking process of planning, setting out and planting. In particular, planting trees and hedges to protect parts of the garden from the vicious and potentially damaging winds experienced in their part of Lincolnshire. But whereas you or I might plant one, possibly two trees, if we had the space, the author planted hundreds, establishing an area of woodland and, later, creating an orchard.

At the same time as doing this, Francis and his wife were living in a barn in very basic conditions. And on top of that, they keep sheep. Their relationship is one of the wonderful things about the book. Both archaeologists, they are obviously kindred spirits in other ways as well, sharing a love of plants, a concern for wildlife but also a clear vision of how a garden should look and feel. At one point Francis says, ‘I like gardens that can retain their secrets’ and this principle has informed how they have set out their garden so that one section always leads to another. Keen visitors to other gardens, they also now open their own garden as part of the National Garden Scheme. You can find details of opening times here as well as a few photographs of the garden. (I’m green with envy of their long border.)

If I’m honest, at times there was a little too much detail – such as the process of setting out paths and resolving problems with drainage – but I attributed this to the author’s passion for the project and his satisfaction at what he and Maisie have created together. They’re definitely right to be proud and Francis makes it clear that the garden is very much a team effort. The final section of the book contains some wonderful colour photographs of the garden as it looks now, followed by the sort of detailed end notes you’d expect from a scientist.

A Fenland Garden is a fascinating book and a testament to what you can achieve if you put your mind to it. Much of the author’s philosophy chimes with my own thoughts about gardening. As he says, ‘Gardeners have to garden; that’s all there is to it.’

I received a digital review copy courtesy of Head of Zeus via NetGalley.

In three words: Informative, passionate, inspiring

Try something similar: Where the Hornbeam Grows by Beth Lynch

About the Author

Francis Pryor is one of Britain’s most distinguished living archaeologists, the excavator of Flag Fen and a sheep farmer. Based in Lincolnshire, he is the author of seventeen books including The Fens (a Radio 4 Book of the Week), Stonehenge, Flag Fen, Britain BC, Britain AD, The Making of the British Landscape and Scenes from Prehistoric Life. Francis lives in the South Lincolnshire Fens.

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#BookReview The Well of Saint Nobody by Neil Jordan @HoZ_Books

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About the Book

William Barrow finds himself in lonely retirement in West Cork. Once an internationally renowned pianist, a terrible skin disease has attacked his hands and made it impossible for him to perform.

Tara is a piano teacher with barely enough pupils to pay the month’s rent. In the local café, the elegant writing of a job advertisement catches her ‘WANTED. HOUSEKEEPER.’

She begins to work in William’s house, keeping to herself the knowledge that they have met three times before, encounters that have changed her life. He is oblivious to this, while she spins tales of the well discovered in his back garden and of a mythical saint, of the healing powers of the water and the moss that surrounds it. But as the moss begins to heal William’s troubled hands, the lines between legend and reality begin to blur, secrets resurface, and past and present collide in unexpected ways.

Format: eARC (352 pages) Publisher: Head of Zeus
Publication date: 3rd August 2023 Genre: Contemporary Fiction

Find The Well of Saint Nobody on Goodreads

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Hive | Amazon UK 
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My Review

I’m always a little wary of books that seem to include an element of magical realism but in this case I was pleasantly surprised – although others may be disappointed – that it features relatively little in the story, or none at all depending on how you feel about the seemingly healing powers of the moss that grows on the walls of the ancient well. For me, it was much more a story about relationships although, later in the book, it briefly takes a more dramatic turn.

There’s a strong theme of storytelling in the book. For example, Tara’s recounting of the legend of the well takes on a life of its own as people become enthralled by the story and invest in its seemingly preternatural powers. Tara herself is, in a way, yearning for discovery of her own story, hoping to provoke a memory that, for a long time, seems unlikely to happen. Storytelling often involves invention and that too features in the book. If this is all sounding rather cryptic then that’s because I don’t want to give too much away.

The Well of Saint Nobody is a gentle, touching story about healing: physical, mental and emotional. Whether there’s magic involved I leave up to you to decide.

I received a digital review copy courtesy of Head of Zeus via NetGalley.

In three words: Intimate, engrossing, moving

Try something similar: Only May by Carol Lovekin

About the Author

Neil Jordan is an Irish film director, screenwriter and author based in Dublin. His first book, Night in Tunisia, won a Somerset Maugham Award and the Guardian Fiction Prize in 1979. He is also a former winner of the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature, the Irish PEN Award, and the Kerry Group Irish Fiction Award. Jordan’s films include Angel, the Academy Award-winning The Crying Game, Michael Collins and The Butcher Boy.

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