Published by Bloomsbury , 2011, hardcover, illustrated, 316 pages, condition: as new.
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.
I loved The Morville Hours, and this book is every bit as good. It takes you through a year in the garden at Morville, starting in the Spring. However, it is not a gardening diary as such and the subject matter can lead to a variety of different places and topics, always interesting.
I'm no gardener (trying to learn) but knowing next to nothing about the subject makes no difference to the enjoyment this book brings.
I'm deeply impressed by the fact that Swift could 'talk through' the garden in the present tense with her future employers (the National Trust) describing its views and vistas, when it was nothing but rough ground with no planting. That takes amazing imagination and confidence!
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.
