Novel thoughts
Received my Cook’s Garden catalog in the mail. Lots of pretty pictures and lush descriptions, just the thing you need for a bitter winter’s day.
Along with catalogs, January is a good time for dreaming over books of perennials, landscaping, water features, composting—all those things you plan to do perfectly this summer.
That’s all nonfiction, of course. Plenty of people have written nonfiction books and essays about their gardening experiences, but not many have written novels about gardening.
There’s “Elizabeth and her German Garden,” of course. It's by Elizabeth von Arnim, who is better known as the author of “The Enchanted April.” Both books are witty and smart. "Enchanted April" managed to retain its charm when it was turned into a movie about a decade ago.
My favorite fictional garden work is a short story by mystery writer Catherine Aird, “Losing the Plot.” It’s found in her book of collected short stories, “Chapter and Hearse.”
The story involves a real estate scam, a retired botany professor and a boundary line dispute—of sorts.
The villain?
Cupressocyparis leylandi.
Anybody know of any other novels about gardening?
Jan 4, 2012 at 10:08 a.m.
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Hey Catherine ... stop by the Children's Desk at HPL and I'll find you a ton of books about gardens (fiction) for kids, teens, and adults! ... some of my favorites? Garden for a Groundhog, My Garden, and The Secret Garden ... to name a few ...
It's a bit hard to imagine spring when we haven't had any snow yet!
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