The Gardener

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Through fate, Hass meets Robert, a charismatic artist. They have a passionate long relationship that is only able to be maintained on the sly, as Robert is married and has no intention of leaving his wife. When they are together Hass finally feels adored. The inevitable happens and they are caught out. Three years later and Hass is still grieving. 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. 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 Gardener (Audio Download): Salley Vickers, Salley Vickers The Gardener (Audio Download): Salley Vickers, Salley Vickers

I loved this book at the beginning. It's a beautiful format, lovely William Morris endpapers and it starts off with such promise. Profoundly moving, healing and wise, this is the perfect antidote to our urban anxiety' Joanne Harris, author of Chocolat The Seasonal Read...: Spring Challenge 2013 Completed Tasks - DO NOT DELETE ANY POSTS IN THIS TOPIC! Told in a gentle and soothing voice, it’s an absorbing tale that feels like a tonic or balm. It tells the story of the impossibly named Halcyon Days — or Hassie, as she’s better known — and her older sister, Margot, who use their inheritance to buy a rundown Jacobean house in a small rural village near the Welsh Marshes, a short drive from Shrewsbury. 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.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.

The Gardener 2 - Salley Vickers On writing The Gardener 2 - Salley Vickers

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. The problem with this book is not just its leisurely growth into its own story – taking its time to find a theme to bring to the table. The book is one of those alienatingly middle-brow, middle-class, middle-England ones. Margot is unlikeable with her cattiness and her above-everyoneness, and Hass is not much better, quibbling with every action and decision her sister makes, both past and present; being overly gossipy about her parents and what they were like before they lost them. She loves a reference to poetry, quotes "Twelfth Night" to us, has an expectation about certain magazines she's probably never read, and despite claims of poverty (due to her only work being illustrating a kids' fiction franchise which she of course hates) diligently overspends because it's for the locals. 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. 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.And that leisurely growth is forever stunted – even a power out, or blown fuse, or whatever it is that afflicts the house before it's shipshape, is just mentioned and then ignored. But then, when the same applies to the greater things, those that might have actually provided a plot, you see all that is wrong about this mish-mash. The decorating, as dull as it was? Incomplete, forgotten, ignored. Likewise with the garden. Ditto with the history of the house Hass gets wrapped up in. No, there is some semblance of a story as regards Hass settling down, and some indication of a kind of fairy legacy regarding the building and its environs, but nothing that ever gels into the form of a decent story. You think I'm strong because I sound off and go on about things and am very direct and seem very full of myself...but the truth is, I am much, much feebler than you. I just go on like this to keep my end up. You think what you're doing is right and that gives you strength. You see, I know I'm not right, I know there is no right. The only "right" I am is that I know what I like and what I want, and what I like and what I want is you, more than anyone else in all the world does, or could." This to me was a reminder that sometimes you just need to read books that explore relationships, rather than always solving murder mysteries. There are mysteries in THE GARDENER but they are not the primary focus. 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’. Most importantly she develops a better understanding and appreciation for herself and of her sister.