"An absolute dream of a read, this invitation to fall in love with plants and nature really shouldn’t be missed."
Simply glorious. This charming book took me by the hand and walked with me over the course of a year around the neighbourhood of The Grove in London, visiting the front gardens and history of this magical place. I say magical, it is actually a normal suburban street, but it is brought to vivid colourful life with Ben Dark’s knowledge and eloquence. Whether you’re an experienced or non gardener this book reaches out to all. I like to think of myself as a lover of nature, but my eyes have now been opened to a new world of possibilities. Ben Dark is a head gardener, award-winning broadcaster, and landscape historian. He not only knows his stuff, he also writes with a poet’s touch. Just to hear him describe Wisteria sinensis made me smile: “It has the poet’s ability to play the tortured ancient from youth. The stems bite into each other as they twist. Constricted growth bulges and flattens. Its wood quickly becomes striated, as if the thin bark lies over a mass of knotted tendon and muscle. It is why the wisteria is such a potent symbol of haunting”. As he walks around the local streets, pushing his son in his pram, the history of the area and plants come to life. He also introduces his own story and the thoughts of a number of renowned lovers of plants from the past including the indomitable Vita Sackville-West. Each and every flower, shrub or tree can be seen as an individual, each garden as its own neighbourhood sometimes reaching out towards the next. If anyone can encourage a burgeoning love of gardening it is Ben Dark. Oh, and I adored his thoughts about the 1/2 garden, everyone should dream so. Chosen as a LoveReading Star Book, this would make an absolutely perfect gift. The Grove: A Nature Odyssey in 19 1/2 Front Gardens is a beautifully readable, engaging and accessible book I can recommend heart and soul.
| Primary Genre | Gardening |
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Any walk is an odyssey when we connect with the plants around us. Each tree or flower tells a tale. Mundane 'suburban' shrubs speak of war and poetry, of money, fashion, love and failure. Every species in this book was seen from one pavement over twelve months and there is little here that could not be found on any road in any town, but they reveal stories of such weirdness, drama, passion and humour that, once discovered, familiar neighbourhoods will be changed forever.
There is a renewed interest in the nature on our doorsteps, as can be seen in the work of amateur botanists identifying wildflowers and chalking the names on the pavements.
But beyond the garden wall lies a wealth of cultivated plants, each with a unique tale to tell. In The Grove, award-winning writer and head gardener Ben Dark reveals the remarkable secrets of twenty commonly found species - including the rose, wisteria, buddleja, box and the tulip - encountered in the front gardens of one London street over the course of year.
As Ben writes, in those small front gardens 'are stories of ambition, envy, hope and failure' and The Grove is about so much more than a single street, or indeed the plants found in its 19 1/2 front gardens. It's a beguiling blend of horticultural history and personal narrative and a lyrical exploration of why gardens and gardening matter.
The Grove features in the following genres: Gardening, Biographies & Autobiographies, Gift Books, History, Lifestyle, Hobbies and Leisure, Nature and the natural world: general interest, Memoirs, Biography, Literature and Literary studies, Gardening: trees and shrubs, Gardening: flowers and ornamental plants, Social and cultural history, Stationery and miscellaneous items, History and Archaeology, Gardening: plants and cultivation guides, History: specific events and topics, Book Club Recommendations, Non-Fiction Books of the Month, Star Books, Recommendations
The Grove is available in Paperback, Hardback
The Grove was written by Ben Dark and published by Mitchell Beazley an imprint of Octopus Publishing Group
