Of Flowers & a Village: An Entertainment for Flower Lovers

by Wilfrid Blunt

Wilfrid Blunt (1901-1987) is probably best known today as a biographer of Linnaeus and as the author of the classic study "The Art of Botanical Illustration." But Blunt also had his lighter side. "Of Flowers & a Village" is a novel written in the form of chatty letters from a doting godfather to his goddaughter, Flora, an enthusiastic (if inexperienced) gardener who is recovering from an illness that has left her temporarily bedridden. Although we learn a great deal about daily life in the village of Dewbury, the subject never strays far from gardening -- by the novel's end, both Flora and the reader have received a gentle but thorough horticultural education. Never has learning about gardening been so much fun.

296 pages, Hardcover

First published February 1, 2006

About the author

note: This profile is for the artist and gardener. For the poet go here: Wilfrid Scarwen Blunt

Wilfrid Jasper Walter Blunt was an artist, art teacher, author and curator of the Watts Museum near Guildford.
Blunt received a scholarship to Marlborough College where he studied between 1914 and 1920.
After a year at Worcester College, Oxford, Blunt switched to the Atelier Moderne in Paris to become an artist. By the following year he was an engraving student at the Royal College of Art, London where he received an Associates degree in 1923.
Blunt joined Haileybury College, Hertfordshire, as its art instructor in 1923. He spent the year 1933 on leave training as a concert singer in Italy and Germany, but pursued singing only avocationally. Europe broadened his cultural outlook enough that returning to a provincial school was no longer rewarding. Blunt researched and published work on the architect William Wilkins, who had designed the buildings of Haileybury in 1806. The previous year, a family connection got him a position of second drawing master at Eton College.
In 1950, Blunt wrote his most acclaimed book The Art of Botanical Illustration, together with W.T. Stearn, for which he was awarded the Veitch Gold Medal from the Royal Horticultural Society. At Eton he encouraged italic handwriting, publishing the book Sweet Roman Hand on the subject in 1952. Blunt retired from Eton in 1959 and joined the Watts Gallery Museum in Compton, near Guildford, as a curator. When he retired from the Gallery in 1983 he was allowed to live in the curator's house until his death. His brothers were Christopher Evelyn Blunt, a noted numismatist, and Anthony Blunt, the eminent art historian (and spy).

source:Wilfrid Blunt

Reviews

[Jennifer Heise · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wilfrid Blunt was one of the co-authors of Art of Botanical Illustration and The Illustrated Herbal so when I saw this little garden-essay collection, I picked it up.

The writing is strongly reminiscent of Beverly Nichols, though rather more quaint and twee. The conceit of letters to a convalescent niece is not entirely boring, and his tittering little tidbits on country upper middle class neighbors are clearly the gay gossip of his day. He certainly knows his flowers and has very strong, if little-old-man, opinions on them, intended for the 'average' gardener. He also loves to scatter descriptions and excerpts from (not to mention criticism of) the great gardening witers.

The problem is that Blunt is exactly what you would expect of a man of his age, class and station: bigoted. He is snide about a Jewish woman (and her trousers) and also rather rude about people he considers of a lower class.

Nuggets of information or no, I couldn't bring myself to keep this little volume.

[Darcee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quirky British gardening memoir. A slow read as you absorb it all.

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

Of Flowers and a Village: An Entertainment for Flower Lovers is written in the form of chatty letters from a doting godfather to his goddaughter, Flora, an enthusiastic (if inexperienced) gardener who is recovering from an illness that has left her temporarily bedridden. Along with snippets of history, lore and practical gardening knowledge, "Wilfrid Sharp" (the author's thinly disguised persona) paints a vivid picture of life in the village of "Dewbury", home to a large cast of eccentric inhabitants. There is Admiral Downes, whose favorite pastimes are cutting down trees and tippling at parties; Susannah Tumaniantz, an Armenian emigree who adores tulips and avant-garde art and writes terrible poetry ("Spring in Mush"); the sweet-natured Delia Lovell, who calls everyone "darling" and whose dogs are nammed Hither and Thither; the dreadful Mrs. Moon, who runs roughshod over everyone in her path; and the even more dreadful Mrs. Putterham, a righ vulgarian whose inexplicably nice son, Oliver, likes music and gardening.

Although we learn a great deal about the daily life of Dewbury, the subject never strays far from gardening -- by the novel's end, both Flora and the reader have received a gentle but thorough horticultural education. Never has learning about gardening been so much fun.
~~ front flap

It's a lovely book. Charming, and certainly a snapshot of the quintessential English village. And gardening. For my tastes, I could have done with a bit less gardening and a bit more village, but it's lovely all the same. Enjoy!

[Kathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Delightfully lighthearted exchange of letters from a highly detailed and opinionated godfather, to his sick god daughter.