also flowers in january

I was in a beautifully arranged second-hand bookshop yesterday with a heart-gladdening section of books about old railways and a shelf full of out of date but intriguing OS maps showing all the pre-Beeching lines. But I came out with a (v cheap) first edition of Garden Open Today (1963) by Beverley Nichols because I discovered while browsing that he was passionate about winter flowers and plants that bloom from December to March. When I saw that the book contains a chapter on 'Firstlings' - a word that is so good - in which he discusses snowdrops, I knew I had to read more.

I bought BN's best-known books Down the Garden Path years and years ago when I was under the illusion that this was about cosy, modest gardening (such a cosy, modest title, you see), little knowing that BN was one of the Bright Young Things who had a series of smart gardens in smart places and plenty of hired help who did the hard work while he faffed about with putting mirrors under snowdrops so he could see the markings. Garden Open Today has a similarly gossipy, camp tone, expensive plants and several now-outrageous sections, but at least I know to read BN for winter inspiration and his way with words, rather than for down-to-earth gardening advice.

And he is brilliant on winter flowers, firstlings, early blue irises and tiny wild narcissi. He makes me want to enter his world in January, and grow witch hazel and winter jasmine, hellebores and cyclamen, so that I can prove that winter in the garden is not cheerless and charmless. Although he is so very different, for me he's the literary equivalent of Winifred Nicholson whose winter paintings also alter my perception of the season. Here are some of her delicate snowdrops: