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Let Us Now Praise Famous Gardens
In this unique gardening chronicle Vita Sackville-West weaves together simple, honest accounts of her horticultural experiences throughout the year with exquisite writing and poetic description. Whether singing the praises of sweet-briar, cyclamen, Indian pinks and the Strawberry grape, or giving practical advice on pruning roses, planting bulbs, overcoming frosts and making the most of a small space, her writings on the art of good gardening are both instructive and delightful. Generations of inhabitants have helped shape the English countryside - but it has profoundly shaped us too. It has provoked a huge variety of responses from artists, writers, musicians and people who live and work on the land - as well as those who are travelling through it.English Journeys celebrates this long tradition with a series of twenty books on all aspects of the countryside, from stargazey pie and country churches, to man's relationship with nature and songs celebrating the patterns of the countryside (as well as ghosts and love-struck soldiers).
97 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2009
About the author
Vita Sackville-West
166 books502 followersNovels of British writer Victoria Mary Sackville-West, known as Vita, include
The Edwardians
(1930) and
All Passion Spent
(1931).
This prolific English author, poet, and memoirist in the early 20th century lived not so privately.
While married to the diplomat Harold Nicolson, she conducted a series of scandalous amorous liaisons with many women, including the brilliant Virginia Woolf. They had an open marriage. Both Sackville-West and her husband had same-sex relationships. Her exuberant aristocratic life was one of inordinate privilege and way ahead of her time. She frequently traveled to Europe in the company of one or the other of her lovers and often dressed as a man to be able to gain access to places where only the couples could go. Gardening, like writing, was a passion Vita cherished with the certainty of a vocation: she wrote books on the topic and constructed the gardens of the castle of Sissinghurst, one of England's most beautiful gardens at her home.
She published her first book Poems of East and West in 1917. She followed this with a novel, Heritage, in 1919. A second novel, The Heir (1922), dealt with her feelings about her family. Her next book, Knole and the Sackvilles (1922), covered her family history. The Edwardians (1930) and All Passion Spent (1931) are perhaps her best known novels today. In the latter, the elderly Lady Slane courageously embraces a long suppressed sense of freedom and whimsy after a lifetime of convention. In 1948 she was appointed a Companion of Honour for her services to literature. She continued to develop her garden at Sissinghurst Castle and for many years wrote a weekly gardening column for The Observer. In 1955 she was awarded the gold Veitch medal of the Royal Horticultural Society. In her last decade she published a further biography, Daughter of France (1959) and a final novel, No Signposts in the Sea (1961).
She died of cancer on June 2, 1962.
This prolific English author, poet, and memoirist in the early 20th century lived not so privately.
While married to the diplomat Harold Nicolson, she conducted a series of scandalous amorous liaisons with many women, including the brilliant Virginia Woolf. They had an open marriage. Both Sackville-West and her husband had same-sex relationships. Her exuberant aristocratic life was one of inordinate privilege and way ahead of her time. She frequently traveled to Europe in the company of one or the other of her lovers and often dressed as a man to be able to gain access to places where only the couples could go. Gardening, like writing, was a passion Vita cherished with the certainty of a vocation: she wrote books on the topic and constructed the gardens of the castle of Sissinghurst, one of England's most beautiful gardens at her home.
She published her first book Poems of East and West in 1917. She followed this with a novel, Heritage, in 1919. A second novel, The Heir (1922), dealt with her feelings about her family. Her next book, Knole and the Sackvilles (1922), covered her family history. The Edwardians (1930) and All Passion Spent (1931) are perhaps her best known novels today. In the latter, the elderly Lady Slane courageously embraces a long suppressed sense of freedom and whimsy after a lifetime of convention. In 1948 she was appointed a Companion of Honour for her services to literature. She continued to develop her garden at Sissinghurst Castle and for many years wrote a weekly gardening column for The Observer. In 1955 she was awarded the gold Veitch medal of the Royal Horticultural Society. In her last decade she published a further biography, Daughter of France (1959) and a final novel, No Signposts in the Sea (1961).
She died of cancer on June 2, 1962.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
July 8, 2019
Delightful collection of gardening articles written and originally published in the years following WWII. Any one who delights in gardening will love this.
October 10, 2021
A delightful little book full of exerts from Sackville-West's gardening newspaper column from the 1940s and 50s.
June 17, 2018
If I was a gardener, I feel sure the score for this book would be 4 stars. But, alas, I am not, so while I thoroughly enjoyed it, my behaviour will not change, and I won't be rushing out to buy the Penzance hybrid briars at 4 shillings. Vita Sackville-West, famous gardener, and Bloomsburian, injects much common sense, practical application, and humour in this slim volume. Published as #15 in Penguin's "English Journeys" series, it is a delightful book of compilations of Sackville-West's gardening columns from The Observer, post WWII. Here is an example of her writing:
"November 26, 1950
A week ago I was writing in this column about rock-gardens. Wildfire ideas swept across me, like a prairie alight. My own small blaze was not comparable to that. I just got excited about the things one could do in a rock-garden, which is a mild little thing to get excited about; but, after all, the point is not what you get excited about, but the fact that in middle age you can still get excited at all. There is nothing like gardening to keep one young."
A charming volume.
"November 26, 1950
A week ago I was writing in this column about rock-gardens. Wildfire ideas swept across me, like a prairie alight. My own small blaze was not comparable to that. I just got excited about the things one could do in a rock-garden, which is a mild little thing to get excited about; but, after all, the point is not what you get excited about, but the fact that in middle age you can still get excited at all. There is nothing like gardening to keep one young."
A charming volume.
February 16, 2015
Homely and witty, these are a charming series of articles written by Vita Sackville-West for the Observer in the late forties/early fifties. I loved the way she interweaves and condenses so much practical advice, poetic description and humour into each short piece. It was also interesting to gain an insight into a personality I had only known from her 'liaisons' with Virginia Woolf. A trip to Sissinghurst (in the height of Summer) is definitely on the cards.
November 8, 2019
I really enjoy this book. Granted that I'm more a vegetable garden person than a flower one, I learned a lot. I didn't always agree with her view of a perfect garden, but it didn't prevent me to have a fun time.
Want to Read
July 29, 2021I learned of this book here: https://theliterarysisters.wordpress....
October 26, 2016
This is a reprinting of some of Vita Sackville-West columns written for the Observer in the years after World War II. She writes knowledgeably and with lots of subtle humour about the joys and considerations of gardening. Living not that far for Sackville-West's beautiful garden, Sissinghurst, this book is both an inspiration and reprimand, as while I don't have the same resources and space as her, I really could do more with the garden I have!
This is also an interesting insight into the Britain of 60 years ago, and a look at how gardening trends and ideas change (or in many cases, change very little!)
This is also an interesting insight into the Britain of 60 years ago, and a look at how gardening trends and ideas change (or in many cases, change very little!)
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews