The Gardener

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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 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. 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. Descriptively written with warmth, laughter and understanding, a beautiful story. The characters and setting very evocative and lasting. Highly recommend.

The Gardener by Salley Vickers - The Church Times

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.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. 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 at the beginning. It's a beautiful format, lovely William Morris endpapers and it starts off with such promise. 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’. 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.

Salley Vickers | Best-selling British Author Salley Vickers | Best-selling British Author

Profoundly moving, healing and wise, this is the perfect antidote to our urban anxiety' Joanne Harris, author of Chocolat 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.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. 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. Hassie is haunted by the relationship with her late father, and by the memories of her former lover, Robert. She becomes interested in the mysterious previous owner of Knight’s Fee, Nellie East, whose notebooks she finds and reads; a young and wayward girl, Penny Lane, dashes into her life; and then there is the gardener, Murat, employed to tend the grounds of Hassie’s and Margot’s new home. 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. The house is set in an extensive but overgrown garden in need of repair. It’s a job too big for one person, so Hassie hires an Albanian migrant who has broken up with his English wife to help her. Although neither of them has any horticultural knowledge, they work together to weed the overgrown garden beds, mow the lawns, repair broken trellises and plant new plants.

The Gardener - Salley Vickers - Google Books The Gardener - Salley Vickers - Google Books

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." 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! 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. Most importantly she develops a better understanding and appreciation for herself and of her sister.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. But overall, The Gardener is a delightful tale about resilience, fresh starts and hope for the future. It’s written with psychological insight, tenderness and poignancy. 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.