The perfect summer read - a novel about love and gardening in which a woman, recovering from divorce, rebuilds a lost garden in Oxfordshire and finds healing - and romance - in the process.
We know Prue Leith is a dab hand in the kitchen. And now we know she can cook up a tasteful story about a garden - although no kitchen garden this. The gardens of the fictional Maddon Park (based on some impressive real estates recognised in the acknowledgements) are expansive and mature.
And so this is a delightful novel for the mature reader. If you want a racy bonk-buster this book is not for you. If, one warm summer evening, you feel in the mood for gentle relaxation, find the cushions for the garden chair, pour yourself a glass of soft rose wine and settle down to this delightfully tasteful read.
'Under the bracken, under the soil, under the forest, under the water, the garden's history is there. It needs an ardent lover to find it.' Lotte is in unfamiliar territory. After a divorce and a great deal of soul-searching, she has abandoned her successful career as an architect for a degree in garden history, and uprooted her three children to take a job as head gardener to millionaire Brody Keegan at Maddon Park in Oxfordshire. Brody is as ignorant about gardens as Lotte is knowledgeable, his tastes as loud as hers are quiet. They have little in common except a passion for Maddon Park and a determination to get their own way. As Lotte locks horns with her boss and his spoilt young wife, she finds herself on an emotional roller coaster. She knows what is right for the garden, but - still raw from divorce, anxious about the children and frightened of entanglement - she is less sure of what is right for her.
'This is an engaging and well-crafted tale' Sue MacGregor.
'Prue Leith writes about gardens with a knowledge born of real love for the subject. Those who enjoy gardening and romance will find it the ideal novel to take on holiday' Elizabeth Jane Howard
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Author
About Prue Leith
As a cook, restaurateur, food writer and business woman, Prue Leith has played a key role in the revolution of Britain’s eating habits since the Sixties. In 1995, having published twelve cookbooks, she gave up writing about food to concentrate on fiction. She has published five novels, the latest of which is A Serving of Scandal. Prue lives in Notting Hill, London and Moreton-in-Marsh, Gloucestershire.
