Devotees of The Morville Hours will need to be patient for the sequel, there is one coming but for now we have the bonus of The Morville Year, a collection of Katherine Swift’s columns from The Times. Taking us through the seasons, a gorgeous bran tub of a book that goes beyond gardening into the delights of land, the plants that make up a garden, the people, animals and insects that visit. Just about the ideal bedside book for any gardener, a chapter of Katherine Swift’s meditations on Morville and its garden will sooth even the most savage breast.
 
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The Morville Hours, Katherine Swift
The Jewel Garden, Monty Don

Synopsis

The Morville Hours won widespread praise from critics and readers alike for the crisp beauty of Katherine Swift's prose as she described the birth and development of her garden at the Dower House at Morville in Shropshire. Now Swift, one of the most-admired gardening writers of her generation, returns to describe a year in the life of the garden in The Morville Year. From the new beginnings and green shoots of March as the weather teeters back and forth between Winter and Spring as if trying to make up its mind, through the intoxicating simple pleasures of the first smell of freshly-mown grass and May flower festivals, all the way through the year in her wonderful garden, Swift takes the reader on a journey that will appeal to gardeners and non-gardeners alike. Every bit as beautifully produced as The Morville Hours, the book will include chapter-opening illustrations by Dawn Burford and four inserts of colour photography (one for each season) by Jane Sebire to show the garden in all its splendour. Those who loved The Morville Hours will again fall under Katherine's spell while those who haven't yet been taken to Morville will delight in discovering it for the first time.

Reviews

Praise for The Morville Hours':

'A magical book. I have read it twice now. I love the richness of Katherine Swift's prose; the flashes of her family's story that are scattered through the deliciously written text; the gorgeous detail. The Morville Hours is the most beautiful book I have read in years'
Nigel Slater

'A truly remarkable book that is both intimate and universal. We are left with a renewed sense of what it is to be human, and of how we make our place in a world that is intricate, unpredictable and filled with quotidian mysteries'
Daily Telegraph

'This is gardening writing at its best. Swift's prose brings the garden alive in all its details, scents and meaning ... Evocative, heartfelt and magical'
Guardian

About the Author

Katherine Swift lives at The Dower House, Morville Hall in Shropshire. She worked as a rare book librarian in Oxford and Dublin before becoming a full-time gardener and writer in 1988. She was for four years gardening columnist of The Times, and has written widely in the gardening press, including an acclaimed series on the gardens and landscapes of Orkney for Hortus. She is the author of The Morville Hours, a Sunday Times bestseller. More books by this author Author 'Like for Like' recommendation