The Garden in the Clouds: From Derelict Small-Holding to Private Paradise

by Antony Woodward

Brand new book in plastic!

Genres: Nonfiction, Gardening, Memoir, Book Club

295 pages, Hardcover

First published January 29, 2010

Reviews

[Jules · Rating 1 out of 5]

I very rarely fail to finish a book, but I had to give up on this one about two thirds of the way in for the sake of my blood pressure. On the face of it I should have loved it - I love gardens, I love the Black Mountains and I dream of someday running away to live more sustainably somewhere beautiful. The start though was unpromising, involving the author explaining how he'd never liked gardens but wanted to create one at a deeply unpromising elevation just to prove he could, and it went downhill from there. Every chapter seemed to follow the formula "I wanted a (tractor/orchard/beehive/wildflower meadow) even though I know nothing about (tractors/orchards/beehves/wildflower meadows) so I spent a ridiculous amount of money on equipment and set about trying to operate/own one in the most impractical way possible, not because of out of any commitment to sustainablity or for the sake of experimentation but because I WANTED TO DO IT THAT WAY. Unsurprisingly it all turned into a massive clusterfuck so I paid someone ridiculous amounts of money to fix it." Even this could have been redeemed by a sympathetic narrator or some engaging characters, but I found the author mindbogglingly arrogant with his blithe assumption that none of these rural skills could be too difficult to master if these picturesque rustics could manage it. His lack of respect for the landscape and the people around him who were trying to scrape an increasingly marginal living from it rather than playing hobby farmer was cringeworthy too - I was actually biting my knuckles for the passage where he destroyed a track that his neighbours were presumably actually using for work trying to haul a twenty ton railway carriage up a mountain with the aid of a crane (he also destroyed a SSI and one of his neighbour's walls, which, while he doesn't say, I assume was probably enclosing livestock). And he didn't put much effort into getting his wife's character onto the page - all she seemed to do was get pregnant and get cold.

My reaction is in part, I suppose, jealousy - he's living my dream and doing it very, very badly. And I suppose he has poured a lot of money in the local economy. But unfortunately part of the reason it's so hard for young people to make a living in the countryside and keep it viable is because of rich city folk like him pushing houseprices to unaffordable levels because they want to live in the country without actually working there and without even appreciating it much - I have no sympathy for someone who apparently never looked out of a window and saw a bird, and who spent a couple of paragraphs lamenting that his mountain view wasn't as dramatic as he'd have liked it to be.

[Keen Reader · Rating 3 out of 5]

Woodward is hardly the first bored, rich, white middle-class English person going through some sort of midlife crisis or whatever to produce another dull pastoral account of his spending habits. I suppose there’s a number of ways you can look at this, an expensive and highly indulgent exercise in contrived nostalgia and sentimentality, a longing for a mysterious prelapsarian sanctuary, which has only ever existed in the imagination. Its romance over reality – seemingly based on the kind of books where you’d think it was forever Edwardian or Victorian England. The words “poppet”, “fiddlesticks” and “nincompoop” are actually used in here. As is the delightful word- “Terracettes” which I’d never come across before.

So many of the elite love this form of high-end country cosplay – All Agas, Land Rovers and love affairs with cherry picked “traditions”, all along comforted by the safety net that they never have to work or rely on the land to sustain or provide for them – after all if and when it all goes pear shaped, one can just return to where one came from – Jolly good. As you were.

This took a while to warm up, but it eventually becomes a little more interesting and to be fair this does have its enjoyable moments and amusing antics, from curmudgeon wall builders, to many other eccentric and esoteric characters who often bring as many problems and challenges as they do assets and qualities. You do get an insight and appreciation for some craftsmanship I thought the picture of the sheep looking through the window was pretty hilarious, and his first foray into bee-keeping is well-told.

I have no idea how much must have been spent on this project, but filling in the gaps it would suggest eye-watering amounts of cash, all the expertise and equipment and then throw in all the toys and time etc. So ultimately the take home message here seems to be, if in doubt throw money at it and if that’s still not working then just throw some more…and if that doesn’t work…

[Jessica Hinton · Rating 3 out of 5]

My reviews can also be found at https://hintonhitsthebooks.wixsite.co...

I probably need to prelude this review by explaining that I'm not much of a gardener. We recently bought a house with a fairly sizeable garden and so have got into it a bit more in an effort to turn our blank canvas into somthing interesting to look at. So I'm a trier, rather than a gardener! The point being that this is not a book I would naturally have picked for myself.

However my good friend and fellow Book club member (who is extremely passionate about gardening) chose this for our Book group and I was really interested to read what I hoped was an accessible gardening book!

Woodward's writing style is intentionally light-hearted and often tongue in cheek. He often points fun at his own 'towny' ways in contrast with the 'roughy toughy' proper farmers, contractors etc. around him that help him to make his 'garden' a reality. There were a couple of descriptions of his utter buffoonary that made me snort out loud. He's sort of like a 'Bill Bryson - light' in his observational humour. Not quite as acerbic and witty but in that type of vein.

There were several moments throughout the book where I found myself asking, "but why would ANYONE do that?!" Suffice to say that Woodward is not looking to create your typical garden here. I had never heard of the 'Yellow book' before and actually to me it sounds like a bit of a snooty way to make gardening even more unfathomable and elitist than it already is. I think Woodward's aim was to demistify this and demonstrate that modern day 'gardening' no longer means tidy box hedges, sculpted lawns and precision planted flowerbeds, but means encompassing the landscape and embracing its history, which I can get on board with.

Two things annoyed me about this book. One was that he never explained how he managed to afford all the madcap things that he kept doing. He seemed like he must be sitting on a bottomless pit of moeny somehow? It detracted from the reality of the situation somehow... just made me think of rich London folk who can afford to buy up rural idylls and do weird things with them.

I was going through some other Goodreads review, and this reviewer, Jules, summed it up perfectly for me (and made me laugh to boot)...

Every chapter seemed to follow the formula "I wanted a (tractor/orchard/beehive/wildflower meadow) even though I know nothing about (tractors/orchards/beehves/wildflower meadows) so I spent a ridiculous amount of money on equipment and set about trying to operate/own one in the most impractical way possible, not because of out of any commitment to sustainablity or for the sake of experimentation but because I WANTED TO DO IT THAT WAY. Unsurprisingly it all turned into a massive clusterfuck so I paid someone ridiculous amounts of money to fix it."

Jules has got it spot on - almost all the chapters were exactly like that! And that level of consistent ignorant arrogance did grate on me after a while. The other annoyance is that he never really builds on his wife's character. Considering she isn't a 'character' but very much a real person! She's very much in the shadows in this book, despite it being obvious that she must have been instrumental in making the whole thing a reality and it sounds like she must be the most long-suffering wife out there.

However, after a slow start I did start to enjoy the whimsical tales of tom foolery and the gentle way that Woodward mocked himself. There were some incredibly touching moments (especially the flashbacks to his childhood memories of moments with his mother) that took me by surprise and I loved the colourful descriptions of the various local characters that helped with the garden. I imagine if I was more of a passionate gardener, or knew more about the trials and tribulations of preparing a garden for the yellow book, I might have liked this even more.

[Lucy Cummin · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a delightful book! On a day that began at -20 F I settled down in front of the wood stove with Woodward and more or less stayed right there until bed time. Thumbnail: The Woodwards, Tony and Vez, buy a hilltop farm in the borderlands of Wales and are determined to get into the Yellow Book of the National Gardens Scheme, a charity, and open for garden visits as soon as possible which, if I have my reckoning right, was a year (or maybe two?) and a half later. My spouse and I didn't do all the things in this book, no dry stone walls, for example, and no bees, and no hauling about of a railroad car (though we have dreamed of it and we did build me a work building that is quite similar to one) but we have done much of this basic homesteading stuff in our time. The amount of work to be done was staggering and, indeed what could be more pleasurable than to read about other people working insanely hard on a day too cold to think about going outside (at least until the thermometer went into the positive). I finished up this morning with their grand opening and felt as proud of the Woodwards' achievement as can be. Along the way the book is laugh out loud funny and full of wry observations and learned wisdom about 'how things get done' (or not). *****

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Antony Woodward wrote one of my favourite ever books, "Propellerhead", and the easy-going, likeable and near eccentric style encountered in that book continues into this one. Ostensibly about gardening, it's more a story about that the writer buying a holiday home in an alien environment - up a mountain in Wales - and then trying to get the garden into shape. So far, so cliched, but Woodward has a way fo telling his tale that draws you into it on his side. You can believe the stories he tells are true, and you can also believe that the account is incidental to the ambition of buying the house in the first place. In other words, he didn't buy the house to write the book, which I sometimes suspect some authors have done! I'm not, and wasn't, all that interested in the trials of him sculpting his garden, with the goal of getting it featured in some guide book whose name I've already forgotten. But the book kept my interest to the end, and was worth reading. Maybe it was a bit lightweight, and I might well have forgotten all about it in six months, but I don't regret passing the time with it one bit.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

Actually I wanted to hate it.
There's plenty in the author that pushes my buttons. Spoiled rich boy spending lots and lots of money buying up a rural property in Wales (where he can't even be bothered to learn to translate the name of his own property - translating 'tair' as 'four' on one page in the book). He shows great contempt for most of the personalities he meets, unless they happen to be of use to him (and often even then). The chapter of the book in which he tears up the Welsh countryside to install a train carriage reeks of privilege and entitlement. How he got away with it I don't know (but probably has something to do with 'connections' and the British class system).
HOWEVER - credit where it is due - the author does what he does well. Writing, that is, not gardening. The book is a page-turner, and in parts remains very, very funny. I can see why people enjoyed it, as (against my better judgement) I did myself. I might even have enjoyed visiting the garden too, though I see it is no longer open to the public. But I'm glad I'm not his neighbour.

[Elda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Only because I have done a lot of those things myself in North Wales over the last two years, apart from the railway carriage, that is; that was painful to read. Sheep, bits of old iron, honey drips and pond...all the same.

[Ben · Rating 3 out of 5]

A pleasant memoir about Woodward's attempt with his wife Vez to create a serious garden, and about the people who help them with the work, and his relationships with his mother, father and grandmother. You have to commit to the garden project to enjoy the book, and there's no particular reason to commit to it—they're just hipsters with too much money. But Woodward is certainly self aware, and not arrogant, and his writing and attitude is light-hearted and funny, occasionally pushing a little deeper. He deals with endless rocks, sheep, rain, his own personal mistakes, even cancer—and always keeps an even keel. I loved Woodward's memoir on learning to fly, "Propellerhead." This was not as compelling to me, or as funny, and it has more characters described in less detail (Woodward respects the privacy of his family, so we mostly get capsule portraits of outsiders). I enjoyed it anyway.

[Katy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sadly I have been slightly disappointing by this book - it was recommended by a couple of people I trust.

It is a memoir of Antony Woodward's Welsh mountainside garden creation. I have an interest in the outdoors and in gardening so this really appealed to me, however the writing was smug and indulgent and times, leaving me feeling annoyed. Some of the chapters around stone walling, bee keeping and hedge laying really appealed to me and I enjoyed reading about them. But I just can't effuse about it. Its really a 2.5 **

[Eva Breitenbach · Rating 3 out of 5]

Also read this after staying at an Airbnb at the Garden in the Clouds and meeting Antony and Verity. I absolutely loved the first half of this but it did bog down a bit for me as it went along. Antony is a hilarious writer.

[Tamsin · Rating 5 out of 5]

An amusing, lighthearted and slightly wacky read. The description of sheep is just wonderful and spot on. Lovely book!

[Jackie Perrons · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just ..... Wonderful !

For anyone with a faint, or otherwise, longing to live on a Welsh mountainside, and tackle all the challenges that come with that notion !

[Kirsty · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5
Really enjoyed this, but I docked half a point for the author tekkin t'mick ou' ta Yorkshire accent. Tha's only allard to do it if tha's from Yorkshire, lad, alreet?

[Simone B · Rating 3 out of 5]

All these gardening misadventures make for a compelling, funny, well written story, that unfortunately screams of white male privilege but is still a very enjoyable read.

[Jami · Rating 5 out of 5]

I first knew of this book when it was mentioned in another book I was reading. It sounded like something I'd like, & I did. First was going to give it 4 stars, but couldn't think of a reason not to give it 5.

[Duncan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just a calm gentle read about the important mundane things in life.

[Sherry Mackay · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit too technical and impersonal. I skipped thru the last half. Unless you are very very interested in farm machinery and so on, you may find this hard to get through.

[Klm · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have some strangely specific reading interests at times, and one of them is memoirs/biographies about people's gardens. I am really not sure how this book would appeal to the average reader, but if you have the same extremely specific reading interest as me, this is a nice example of that niche. Antony Woodward writes in a fairly amusing way, although it's definitely been exaggerated for humourous effect (I can tell because his wife didn't divorce/murder him despite his commitment to absolute absurdity). However, still enjoyable to read. For my favourite example of this type of book, try Common Ground by Janice Marriot and Virginia Pawsey.

[Zarina · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The Garden in the Clouds" is not an encyclopaedia with gardening tips and facts but rather an autobiographical tale of an, as the subtitle indicates, hopeless romantic. It's the story of Antony Woodward and his ideal to make a garden in the clouds. Or high up on the mountains as the case may be. From the move to Wales to all the various parts that make up his unique garden the author uses each chapter to dive into a different aspect of the transformation and manages to not only make the story consistently engaging but also surprisingly humorous. Some of the choices he has made along the line were hardly thought through properly and he knows it. Yet Woodward did not choose to rewrite those parts or ignore them, instead he uses a healthy dose of self-deprecation which makes him much more likeable and relatable and prompts the reader to root for him despite the very unlikely goal of converting the unappealing waste land into something worthy to be included in the Yellow Book of the National Garden Scheme.

There were a few points to the story that the realist in me despite getting lost in the hopelessly romantic musings and actions of the author questioned however. Such as the details of the relocation from London to Wales and how the author managed to get by without a steady job and income. I am assuming at least that both he himself and his wife left their jobs in London and did not instantly start working again in Wales. The story indicates that since the move they spent most if not all of their time on the garden and especially when reading about some of Woodward's more expensive impulse buys it left me wondering how he was still able to support his family (and on that note, his wife must be an absolute saint for putting up with his splurges and his more often than not rather unrealistic ideas such as the sudden urge to obtain a railway carriage to decorate part of their land).

Having said that, the descriptions of the area the story is set in are wonderfully lush and transports the reader to the rugged Welsh country side. And despite all the hiccups author Anthony Woodward encounters during his various antics (from bees invading the house to inventive sheep getting into his vegetable patch) after finishing the book I wanted to do nothing more than to pick apples in an orchard, mow a field with an antique tractor and make my own award winning honey - sticky mess and all.

[Sofia · Rating 4 out of 5]

In my ‘obsessed with all things gardens and longing for a small stone cottage on a hill’ era

[Ade · Rating 4 out of 5]

Antony Woodward is a former London advertising copywriter who buys a remote hill cottage in the Brecons and starts trying to turn it into the 'garden in his head'. Which means he seeks lots of advice then ignores it because "I want a pond! I want a railway carriage! I want a meadow!" - with predictably calamitous consequences in most cases and particularly so when it came to getting a twenty ton brake van up a mountain (had I been one of his long-suffering neighbours, I certainly wouldn't have been pacified by a bottle of gin). His propensity to knowingly inconvenience his local neighbours and take every advantage of their generosity to cover for his own wilful mistakes, and yet keep doing it with little shame, somewhat confirms the stereotype of the ignorant city dweller blundering about the countryside. I believe this project was partly funded (because certainly many of the problems are made to disappear by having money thrown at them) by the advance for this book, which renders the promise to donate 10% of "any royalties" to charity somewhat moot.

What saves it is that Woodward relates all this with such amusing brio that, even when employing his ad-man's gift for eliding the details in describing his "1,600 foot high garden" (hem) for the National Garden Scheme book, you're prepared to forgive him and enjoy his chaotic journey. Viewed as a how-the-hell rather than a how-to, this is an enjoyable read for anyone who ever (thought they) wanted a rural retreat.

Minor spoiler: it's not really about a garden. And it's not really a garden.

[Terry Mark · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really tried to finish this book as a friend had bought this for my birthday but only got half way.It sounded great from the outside with me being a professional gardener myself, my love of the countryside, and being a hopeless romantic at heart but in truth I really struggled with it and got bored.Taking on a project like Antony Woodward did must have been exciting for him but not for me I'm afraid.The only part I enjoyed which must have been an absolute nightmare was getting the old railway wagon to his property even though he ruined everything on the way.The type of books I normally read are magical realism generally who take me away from normal everyday life which is why i read them so this one just didn't do it for me but bravo to Antony Woodward for achieving what he did.

[Hazel Osmond · Rating 5 out of 5]

I bought this expecting a tale of a family's struggle to make a garden and got a whole lot more. You instantly warm to the teller of the tale while also thinking he is quite mad, and alongside the humour is some beautiful really tear-inducing memories from his family life. I'm not sure how he does it but the story becomes a much larger one than his or his garden or even his wider family and touches on the things we all carry around from our childhood. I felt strangely uplifted at the end of it and have given it to a couple of other people as presents for that very purpose.

[Penny · Rating 3 out of 5]

A cut well above the usual 'we left our well paid jobs in the city and bought a ruin in the middle of nowhere' type of book.
This concentrates not on the house itself but creating a garden good enough to be an entry into the 'Yellow Book' of open gardens. The main problem is the height of the property (in the clouds some of the time).
Very informative about gates, stone walling, bee keeping - and about how crafty sheep are. They are not silly at all.
Woodward has an easy writing style, doesn't try too hard to be funny and never takes himself too seriously.

[Matt Ots · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best books I've read. Antony Woodward's writing style is humorous, light-hearted and down to earth. Sure, the whole idea of buying a derelict smallholidng half way up a mountain and then trying to create a garden with no prior experience of such things sounds pretty crazy/eccentric but the story is all the more engaging for that. I guess it helps if, like me, you dream of doing similar sorts of things yourself. I can appreciate that the subject matter might not be to everyone's interest, but I don't think you have to be interested in gardens or gardening to appreciate this book.

[Andrée · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like this book but it reeks of arrogant ignorance poorly disguised by loadsa money.
What Ant'ney wants, Ant'ney gets.
If he was my neighbour I'd loathe him.
But it gets two stars for reminding me to check what apples grow best locally - so now have a choice of 70 varieties - but have to do all the work myself so won't be in the Yellow Book this year.....

[Emmsi19 · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lovely gentle read. One man and his determination. Who in their right mind would get a train carriage up a mountain? Who would call a collection of fields and views a garden? (I question as one who gardens for my profession).
This book isn't going to change your life but it may uplift it.