5 comments about Green Thoughts: A Writer in the Garden (Modern Library Gardening).

1. Although I have not gardened in years and have no plans to start now, I have been enchanted by "Green Thoughts." Ms. Perenyi's writing is crisp, intelligent, and witty. Anyone who can take such non-riveting subjects as worms, mulch, and compost (to name a few) and turn them into elegant, fascinating essays deserves some sort of prize. If E.B. White had written a gardening book, it would probably resemble this one. A real treat.



2. Eleanor Perenyi's book GREEN THOUGHTS is a memoir of sorts. She apparently never wrote another book on gardening, but as Alan Lacy says, sooner or later every writer who gardens will write a book about gardening. At the time her book was published in 1981, she had worked in her own garden in New England for a number of years. She says she had been gardening for 30 years, but does not indicate if she is including the years she lived in Hungary her birthplace. She was an immigrant who migrated first to Europe and then to America where she worked in New York as editor of Madamoiselle and lived and gardened in New England. Her detailed observations about gardening are of limited use to those who live and garden elsewhere in the States. However, Perenyi has many wise 'thoughts' that can be acted on in almost any garden, including the advice `don't be overly neat' - something that's taken me a while to appreciate.

   Perenyi's book contains many original insights and much information not widely available at the time she wrote her book - such as gardening tips from `Organic Gardening Magazine'. Perenyi wrote only one book on gardening but she is often quoted-the main reason I wanted to read GREEN THOUGHTS. She organized her comments Alpha to Zeta (actually ends with `W' for Woman's Place), which are literally a set of small essays ranging from a paragraph in length to several pages on various topics from hedges and lawns to onions and potatoes.

   My favorite essay is "Woman's Place" which appropriately enough covers the history of women in the garden from Eve to Eleanor Perenyi. She reveals the sad truth that women invented horticulture while men were off hunting in packs, only to be thrown out of the garden at a later date when men "took charge" of the fields. Over the eons, women were relegated lower and lower positions garden-wise until they became decorative ornaments - well at least in upscale gardens East and West, whether the Seraglio with it's harem or the Virgin's Bower.

   In the gardens (er..vegetable patches) of traditional societies she says women became beasts of burden. Perenyi notes that Oriental women do the weeding in the rice paddies and carry the firewood in Africa. At any rate, while European upscale men were busy adapting their posh Renaissance gardens to the latest `Arabasque" notion or plowing up the 18th Century landscape under the guidance of Sir Humphrey Repton (and still hunting in packs one notes), enterprising nuns and country women with their "messy" cottage gardens preserved the diversity of the native species of plants. In the 20th Century, Gertrude Jeckyll and William Robinson discovered what the old wives had been up to and introduced "native" plants to upscale country gardens. The moral of the book is that men's overly tidy and rational gardening habits are bad and women's messy garden habits are good. Rational agriculture destroys, messy gardening preserves.




3. What a wonderful experience to spend time with this intelligent, funny, morally secure woman. She's an elegant writer with a wealth of gardening knowledge. Her views on organic gardening, composting, etc. are now widely recognized as correct. Her taste, which she does not hesitate to reveal, is impeccable. One of the best gardening books I've ever read. I hope the years since this book was published have been very kind to Ms. Perenyi and her Stonington, Conn. garden.



4. Interesting tidbits of information not found elsewhere. Author carps constantly which gets in the way of enjoyable reading. Author doesn't know there is a US beyond the East Coast.



5. This is a book best served in small helpings and since that's the way it is organized, it's good. Reading this book is like eating raspberries; it tastes wonderful and the seeds occasionally get in between the teeth, like "...it is the only garnish for oeufs en gelee...". Tarragon, that is. On the other hand, ref. tarragon, here is the word on why growing it from seed results in disappointment, to whit, the real stuff is propagated by "division, layering or cuttings". Herein, as well, is the lowdown on growing onions, scallions, and leeks. Who knew? I think that this book is a total treasure, seeds and all.

5 comments about Sunlight On The Lawn (Beverley Nichols Trilogy Book 3).

1. Some readers of Beverly Nichol's books have found his writing hilarious, but I do not. I find him amusing, and have read the trilogy plus his GREEN GROWS THE CITY because they sustained my interest, but he is not P.G. Wodehouse or John Mortimer for that matter.

   I cannot judge from Nichols books whether or not he had a particularly deep understanding of human nature. From time to time, he allowed himself to be drawn into odd misadventures with eccentric others, and he certainly had his conflicts with busy-body females, and as often as not he had charming female friends. His best friend in the world seemed to be Gaskin, his 'man' and his cats.

   The central theme of MERRY HALL, the first book in his trilogy, is the restoration of the grounds and gardens at his old Georgian Estate. LAUGHTER ON THE STAIRS covered the renovation of Merry Hall--the Georgian Manor house. His third book, SUNLIGHT ON THE LAWN, has people as it's focus--those who inhabited the area in and around Merry Hall when Nichols lived there in the late forties and fifties. First, there is the sad departure of Oldfield whose gardening days come to an abrupt end. Then, there are various episodes involving the ever meddling Rose, tea with Miss Mint, fractious neighbors, overgrown fields, and wells without water.

   As always, in a book by Beverly Nichols, there are cats. Nichols had a great love of black cats, and the cats often play a role in one of his tales. Most of the time the story is funny, but sometimes a cat meets a sad end. If you are a cat fancier, you may find his cat exploits familiar and amusing. This is a nice book for bedtime reading and a fitting end to the series.




2. Beverley Nichols had a rare talent. His writing is witty and humane and perfect for relieving the stress of life lived in the modern world. When you read this book you will be saddened that only two others of his sixty odd minor masterpieces are still in print. Buy this book if you love gardens, or old houses or simply reading well written stories, some of which are laugh out loud funny. Beverley Nichols writes like Oscar Wilde, except his subject is gardening and old houses and the curious people who dwell in them.



3. Having read Trilogy1 and 2 of this series, I just had to get the third. It did not disappoint at all. A continuance of Beverley Nichols life with his beloved garden, and lifes ups and downs.Recommended reading.



4. Sunlight on the Lawn is the third volume in the Merry Hall trilogy by Beverley Nichols. Where the first volume focused on the garden at Merry Hall and the second focused on the house, this volume focuses on the community, providing a humorous glimpse into English village life in the 1950's. Gardeners and fans of Mr. Nichols' spendthrift ways will be happy to know that large-scale projects continue apace in the author's garden.
   
   It is a mistake to read the foreword first - it casts an elegiac tone over the rest of the book. Save it for the end. Also putting a bit of a damper on things is the fact that we realize in this book that Our Beverley is something of a coward - he touches so lightly on the death of one of the characters (real people - this is memoir, not fiction) that the reader is left gasping, and spends the rest of the book wondering if he has mis-read. For these reasons I have knocked one star off of my rating for this book.
   
   Having said that, if you have already read and enjoyed the first two volumes, you will be eager to spend more time in the company of this author, and see what his friends and neighbors are getting up to. Mr. Nichols is a keen observer of people, and with his deliciously dry wit (and unsparing of himself) he turns everyday situations and relationships into real entertainment.
   
   Highlights of the book include the escalating but ever "civil" fued between Our Rose and Miss Emily, and how Bob helps extricate Miss Mint from a very sticky situation involving the tenants from hell.
   
   I'm off to order more books by Mr. Nichols!



5. This book is like Canada Dry Ginger Ale- dry, crisp, and refreshing. Beverley Nichols was a very arch and witty writer! A combination of Jerome K. Jerome and May Sarton. This book is about his cats, his friends, and his garden. There are some very funny parts and some very sad parts. Some are almost too sad to read, but that is the way it usually is with excellent books like this.

5 comments about Around the House and in the Garden: A Memoir of Heartbreak, Healing, and Home Improvement.

1. In her essays on life in a home, Dominique Browning, editor of House & Garden, offers her own intensely personal experience with the ways in which the home environment affects and is affected by divorce, self-esteem, and vice versa.

   Her descriptions of her rooms, her struggle to find a good living room couch (after successfully finding a kitchen sofa), her explanations of plants and flowers to her young sons, all create the feeling that you are on the phone with an old friend working to describe her evolving life. Her deep understanding of the ways in which our environments affect us (for better, for worse, just like marriage) leads the readers to feel like the changes we've been tempted to make might just be logical after all.




2. As a longtime fan of personal essays -- and one who teaches writing workshops on the topic -- I found this to be an exceptionally enjoyable and beautifully written collection. Best of all, as a homemaker who loves the domestic arts, I think Browning strikes just the right tone of love and yearning for home.

   Most of us are too busy these days to spend all the time we'd like creating a home and garden, or nurturing a young family. Browning hones in on these desires and serves up poignant pieces everyone can relate to -- even if we're not divorced or uprooted. I would love to see more of her work (yes, I subscribe to her magazine just to read her essays) in book form!




3. Reminiscent of Jackson McCrae's "THE BARK OF THE DOGWOOD--A Tour of Southern Homes and Gardens" (though that book goes very deep into the lives of houses), Browning's book is full of heart-warming stories and insight into what really makes up a home. The details she notices are amazing and she brings them to life for us with a sense of poetry and style. What a brave and caring book she's given us.



4. Sometimes a book comes along that changes our outlook--perhaps even pulls us from despair. Ms. Browning's book seemed to take my hand and yank me from the quagmire. She seemed to be saying, You are not the first woman to let a garden run to seed or to watch small trees sprout from your gutters! You are not the only woman who has made a mistake--whether it's choosing the wrong a sofa . . . or man. Giving ourselves permission to fix our lifes can often be as difficult as repairing a gas leak --the job is far too difficult and dangerous to contemplate. Setting ourselves free isn't painless--in fact, "setting" is the wrong word. It is more like ripping and tearing; although sometimes it can be more like a surgical separation--no matter, all methods are painful and require a period of rest and healing. That is the most important concept of the book--in her inimitable style, she gently reminds us that it is "okay" to let things go to seed, and that our houses and gardens are barometers of our emotional lives. These barometers will let us know when it is time to rebuild the nest.



5. I enjoyed this book so much I almost gave it five stars, but several of the essays were a bit disjointed. Still, those that are good are excellent. She does a masterful job at keeping personal detail out of her essays and writing nothing that will embarrass her sons. This is laudable, but it had the unsettling effect of making me wonder why in the world she divorced. This is a minor quibble, though. I think most thoughtful people would enjoy this book. I am not divorced, but it resonated with me as a mother and as someone who loves her home.

1 comments about Village in a Valley (Beverley Nichols's Allways Trilogy).

1. I was a bit disappointed in this book - Beverley seems to have not been as interested in his subject as he was in the other 2 books of this trilogy, and he became quite morbid in the last section. Perhaps he was in a hurry to get the book finished, or wasn't well at the time.

2 comments about Figs, Dates, Laurel, and Myrrh: Plants of the Bible and the Quran.

1. This hardcover book is beautifully illustrated on the research of the individual plants discussed. It is well written,interesting and easily understood. It is a valued addition to my library of bible plant literature.Thank you amazon for your speedy and efficient service.
   Tom



2. First, start out reading a rib-tickling introduction by Garrison Keillor. Keillor grew up in the same church with the author and that's an interesting story, Even more entertaining is Keillor's effort to describe myrrh, his reflections on the Song of Solomon(!), and his thoughts on rue! If that doesn't leave you smiling your face is broken!
   
   Second, if you have any interest in plants or gardens and the Bible (or the Quran) you will be thrilled with the photos of biblical plants as they are grown, prepared and enjoyed today in the lands of the Bible. Musselman has spent good stretches of time in several areas of the Middle East, and local folks have joyfully shared their ongoing practices with him. His photos are extremely valuable in their beauty, their ability to set plants of the Bible and Quran in their contemporary setting, and to show us their blossoms, fruit, and leaves in case you decide to create a faith garden and hope to choose other similar plants. Even if you don't have a big interest in Bible plants (as I do) you will enjoy the many, many beautiful full-color photos!
   
   Third, if you ever thought about growing plants from the Bible or the Quran, Dr. Musselman gives you a wonderful guide for selecting the plants. Not only does he present an interesting and extremely thorough study of which plants are in these sacred books (Musselman teaches Biblical Botany at Old Dominion College). He shares the process by which he made his choices. Some are identical to the best of his predecessors in identifying plants in the Bible, and some well-argued that differ. Keep us thinking!
   
   Finally, if you teach faith to children at home or at your place of worship, the photos and stories about plants in the Bible will be a wonderful way to help your students start a hands-on experience of faith. Children in churches, synagogues and mosques around the world are growing faith gardens - raising their own watermelons, lilies, grapes, wheat, figs, and up to 100 other plants that bring faith to life. Classes and families are learning and growing, feasting and drawing, worshipping and playing in faith-nurturing gardens - while learning to care for creation! Google "Biblical Gardens" and discover some of the many ways people are teaching faith to their children. Then get a copy of Figs, Dates, Laurels and Myrrh right away and start your own faith garden!
   
   I feel a special gratitude to Dr. Musselman. Our church and others have been growing and promoting faith gardens for 25 years. He has encouraged us along the way and his work gives us all a beautiful, well-studied resource to take us to real people today who, like people in Bible times, are growing gardens and growing faith! May he be blessed, as you will be, through his lovely book!
   
   The Rev. Marsh Hudson-Knapp is the co-founder of the Biblical Gardens at the First Congregational Church of Fair Haven, VT, U.C.C., webmaster of a Biblical Garden website, and author of several publications about Biblical Gardens including the Selection Guide for Planning Your Biblical Garden. hkfamily@sover.net

5 comments about Painted Garden (Courage Inspirations).

1. This is a MUST have beautiful, as well as enchanting journal to read! I purchased it for two reasons. I have begun a watercolor class and this book is full of beautiful pictures. So I can try for some similar results after I practice, practice, practice. Secondly, after visiting Gloria, a friend with a georgeous flower garden, I want to start my own small flower garden. This book is full of names of flowers along with their pictures, so I can determine what I like most and where it will grow. Already my gardening and painting friend, Gloria has purchased this book after only glancing through my copy. Now I would like to purchase other titles by Mary Woodin. I have discovered she was also into ceramics, as I am into pottery, maybe we are kindred spirits.



2. I received this book as a gift for Christmas and I look at it every day. This is a "must" purchase for anyone who has any interest in a garden of any type. It is wonderful to enjoy lounging in the bathtub, while sipping a cup of tea or just enjoying some quiet time. Give this as a gift to your best friend. Better, get this as a gift to yourself. You deserve this beautiful book.



3. Very simple book. Easy to understand. Would recommend this book for the beginning watercolorist.



4. Lovely book, beautiful artwork makes a timely gift.



5. This is the type of book to keep by your bedside to read a passage or two before bedtime. It is both inspirationally written while offering a relaxing and peaceful appreciation of the beauty around us.

2 comments about Down the Kitchen Sink.

1. If you've enjoyed other books by Beverley Nichols or those by P.G. Wodehouse, this is a book for you. The charming recipes and antedotes make for a delightful reading experience. This book is worth the cost for the Mayonnaisse chapter alone!



2. I am a great fan of Beverly Nichols, so I am always excited to see one of his books reprinted. I enjoyed this look into an era long gone. His gardening books gave you a glimpse of Gaskin but this book presented a picture of the real person, not just the perfect servant. I like Nichols' wry humour and every cat lover will feel they have met a kindred spirit.

3 comments about Thatched Roof (Beverley Nichols's Allways Trilogy).

1. Delightful reading by a wonderful writer. Although Nichols claim to fame is that of a garden writer, this book spends less time gardening (than the first) and more time repairing, and discovering his cottage at Allways. Nevertheless, whether read by a gardener or not, it is a wonderful and quick read as the author takes us in and out and up and down throughout his cottage as he attempts to make it not only habitable, but civilized. I look foward to the rest of this trilogy and his other 'gardening' books.



2. Cast yourself back to England circa the 1920s-30s, snuggle up in a comfy chair by the fireside, and get ready to be drawn into the life of Beverley Nichols, the village of "Allways," and the story of how a centuries-old thatched cottage was restored. A great vacation from the 21st century, cell phones, and the hurried/harried life.



3. I love this series of books by Beverley Nichols...I enjoy so much his writing style and the fact that he's just a "little" irreverent...I love his enthusiasm for his garden...He seems to have lived in a wonderful world of his own...Reading about it 70 years later is such a gift...Kelly Burgess.

5 comments about It's a Long Road to a Tomato: Tales of an Organic Farmer Who Quit the Big City for the (Not So) Simple Life.

1. If you want to read about how to mistreat your animals, then this is textbook reading. What a jerk---his friends, if he has any, should have reported him to the ASPCA ASAP! I didn't just throw this book away--I trashed it and then dumped dog poop on it.
   
   Don't waste your money thinking you are going to read a pleasant account of organic farming and raising crops--not by a long shot.



2. Very readable and enjoyable set of short essays and articles.
   The title says it all.
   Makes you feel we should all throw in the corporate towel and head for the farm.



3. This book makes wonderful winter reading-- as the fields lay buried in snow, we are reminded that warm weather and fresh food are not too far off.
   
   Word of advice-- do not read prior to placing your seed order, or you may become too ambitious.



4. If ever you wanted to feel a real and unadulterated vista into the heart, soul and core of a farmer, this is it. The guy who slammed it (and proceeded to "trash" it and cover it in dog poo not only exemplifies the wastefulness and unrealisticness of PETA-fanatics, but totally misses the point). As humans, we live within a cycle of life. This book shows it, no holds barred, in a poignant, funny, and utterly real fashion. You can almost feel the gritty earth underneath his fingernails, and it made me want to go get some dirt underneath mine, too.



5. I consider this book a sort of motivational speech for those who are interested in gardening. I really enjoyed it and it is humurous and easy to follow. There is some great advice in there and I wish there had been more but overall I have no regrets about purchasing it.

5 comments about Laughter On The Stairs (Beverley Nichols Trilogy Book 2).

1. A delightful read! Mr. Nichols (in a very "proper" British fashion) describes his hilarious adventures in home decorating and remodeling. His run-ins with his snobby neighbors can not be missed! If you love gardens, cats, home decorating, or if you just love to laugh; GET THIS BOOK! In fact, get all three books in this trilogy (ie: "Merry Hall", "Sunlight on the Lawn", and "Laughter on the Stairs").



2. In LAUGHTER ON THE STAIRS, Nichols continues his tale of the restoration of Merry Hall and it's grounds. Just after WWII, Nichols purchased a derelict Georgian House and it's tattered grounds, and with the help of his 'man' Gaskins, and the able Oldfield, who had worked the grounds for most of his life, he began a restoration project.

   MERRY HALL was written about six years into the project, and focused on the grounds. LAUGHTER ON THE STAIRS takes place a few years, when later Nichols has turned his attention to the interior of the old Georgian House. The former owner, a Mr. Stebbing had very Victorian tastes, which Nichols dislikes, and has tried to erase. At last, he plans to address the staircase, where a stained-glass window that was "unquestionably..most alarming" overhang the landing.

   Nichols nosey-parker neighbor Rose doesn't want to see the house altered. She remembers the days when Mr. Stebbing was the owner, and she does not approve of the new owner's changes. She was particularly outraged by the savage destruction of the old boxwood hedge. Now, Nichols proposes to destroy the lovely stainglass window Mr. Stebbing had installed over the staircase. Of course Merry Hall is Nichol's house and he can do what he likes, but he is concerned about the neighbors reactions to his plans. The story takes an interesting twist when burglers break in one night and in a strange way help him solve the dilemma.

   This is a light and amusing book, and one I found very intertaining reading before bedtime.




3. Magical writing and so descriptive, from another era, gossipy, funny and at times thoughful. Great insight into Beverley Nichols life. Recommend this to anyone who enjoys gardening and life in general.



4. This is the second volume in the Merry Hall trilogy, a set of books that focuses on Beverley Nichols' home life while he resides at Merry Hall, not his work life (which is presumably covered in his multi-volume autobiography). Where the first volume focused almost exclusively on the rehabilitation of the garden portion of his newly-purchased property, Laughter on the Stairs focuses on the re-doing of the house, interspersed with stories of local goings-on.
   
   With a deft hand Mr. Nichols describes the horrible but inevitable way in which home improvement projects tend to snowball into something much bigger and more expensive than one had intended. At the same time he takes great delight in un-doing the monstrosities that the previous owner has inflicted upon the house.
   
   Meanwhile, we are introduced to a couple of new "characters", specifically Marius' old governess Miss Mint, a very sweet and extremely timid woman who is welcomed into the local community; Erica Wyman, a famous gypsy novelist of dubious experience who is not; and Five, who arrives as a kitten and quickly settles into the Nichols' household.
   
   Among the amusing stories that the author recounts are one that involves the sale of Miss Mint's fake Tudor cottage with a dried-up well to the odious Ms. Wyman, and the flower show, which goes horribly awry in a most satisfying manner.
   
   Mr. Nichols is the sort of person that you'd want as a friend - he's a gentle soul who is enraptured by beauty in every form and can scarcely bear to harm a bug, but he also has a marvelously dry sense of humor and a delicious way of describing the personalities and interactions of those around him.
   
   As a reviewer, I despair of coming up with a sufficient list of adjectives for Mr. Nichols' writings, as I intend to search out and read them all. Although that intention itself is perhaps review enough.



5. A great read. Part of a trilogy; I have just purchased the other two books as this book was so much fun to read. This book will interest people who have a love of old houses, English villages, and gardening.