Garden House Book Week: Part 3
Posted:24 February 2015
Leading up to our special ‘book and stories’ day, Friday 27 February, we’ve asked members of the Garden House’s regular Friday gardening group to tell us about their favourite reading inspirations.
Morning session a FREE drop-in between 11am and 1pm: a Gardening Books/Magazines Swop, when you will be able to drop in, bringing garden and garden related books/magazines to swop.
Afternoon session – 2pm to 4.30pm, cost £15 make your own Your Garden Design Mood Boards – using our stack of old gardening and garden design magazines, you’ll be able to cut and paste and create mood boards for your garden – and buy tea and homemade cake to enjoy as you work!
Evening – 7pm to 9pm, cost £25 to include a light supper and wine Tales from the Plant Hunters: an evening of wondrous storytelling round the fire with local writer Pat Bowen.
Virginia Woolf’s Garden: The Story of the Garden at Monk’s House (by Caroline Zoob)
Monk’s House in Sussex is the former home of Leonard and Virginia Woolf. This beautiful book is an absorbing account of the creation of a garden which will appeal equally to gardeners and those with an interest in Virginia and Leonard Woolf. It was bought by them in 1919 as a country retreat, somewhere they came to read, write and work in the garden. From the overgrown land behind the house they created a brilliant patchwork of garden rooms, linked by brick paths, secluded behind flint walls and yew hedges. The story of this magical garden is the subject of this book and the author has selected quotations from the writings of the Woolfs which reveal how important a role the garden played in their lives, as a source of both pleasure and inspiration. Virginia wrote most of her major novels at Monk’s House, at first in a converted tool shed, and later in her purpose-built wooden writing lodge tucked into a corner of the orchard.
Friday gardener Sharon writes: “A beautiful book which outlines the story of Virgina and Leonard Woolf’s garden at Monks House in Rodmell, East Sussex. This book contains stunning photographs which would inspire the reader even if they were not familiar with the garden. The story of the garden and how it was developed by Leonard and was inspirational to Virginia is detailed within the book with chapters covering the different areas within the garden. The author was a tenant at the property which is now owned by the National Trust.”
Also well worth reading:
Charleston: A Bloomsbury House and Gardens (by Quentin Bell and Virginia Nicholson)
Set in the heart of the Sussex Downs, Charleston Farmhouse is the most important remaining example of Bloomsbury decorative style, created by the painters Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant. Quentin Bell, the younger son of Clive and Vanessa Bell, and his daughter Virginia Nicholson, tell the story of this unique house, linking it with some of the leading cultural figures who were invited there, including Vanessas sister Virginia Woolf, the writer Lytton Strachey, the economist Maynard Keynes and the art critic Roger Fry. The house and garden are portrayed through Alen MacWeeneys atmospheric photographs; pictures from Vanessa Bells family album convey the flavour of the household in its heyday.
Vita Sackville-Wests Sissinghurst: The Creation of a Garden (by Vita Sackville-West and Sarah Raven)
From 1946 to 1957, Vita Sackville-West, the poet, bestselling author of All Passion Spent and maker of Sissinghurst, wrote a weekly column in the Observer describing her life at Sissinghurst, showing her to be one of the most visionary horticulturalists of the twentieth-century. With wonderful additions by Sarah Raven, Vita Sackville-Wests Sissinghurst draws on this extraordinary archive, revealing Vitas most loved flowers, as well as offering practical advice for gardeners. Often funny and completely accessibly written with colour and originality, it also describes details of the trials and tribulations of crafting a place of beauty and elegance. Sissinghurst has gone on to become one of the most visited and inspirational gardens in the world and this marvellous book, illustrated with drawings and original photographs throughout, shows us how it was created and how gardeners everywhere can use some of the ideas from both Sarah Raven and Vita Sackville-West.
Please note: book outlines and images are from Amazon.co.uk