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A review by tinahudak
The Last Garden in England by Julia Kelly
3.0
This is the first book I have read by author, Julia Kelly who writes, among other genre, historical fiction set in England. The attraction was the title. Full stop. What gardener, even as novice as I, could resist this title?
There are many summaries online, so I will be brief: the gardens and their transformations are viewed by the reader through time from the perspectives of women who have profound encounters with it. It offers a comfort level many readers of historical fiction long for in that it is a linear and predictable story line, despite chapters alternating among three time periods and five women. We meet these women at certain points in their lives with only the briefest allusions to their pasts. This diminishes the intimacy of knowing them, their motivations, and often, their decisions at which a 21st century reader might easily scoff.
All that being said, it is a lovely story in the truest sense – loves of the women and love of the gardens themselves. It has been compared with “Downton Abbey” and one could easily see this as a Masterpiece series. It is a visual novel in many ways.
In this instance, what I would have loved to read is the story of the garden’s transformations from the garden’s point of view. An anthropomorphic, historical novel, you might say. As a gardener longing for something a bit more tantalizing, this would have added a different dimension.
There are many summaries online, so I will be brief: the gardens and their transformations are viewed by the reader through time from the perspectives of women who have profound encounters with it. It offers a comfort level many readers of historical fiction long for in that it is a linear and predictable story line, despite chapters alternating among three time periods and five women. We meet these women at certain points in their lives with only the briefest allusions to their pasts. This diminishes the intimacy of knowing them, their motivations, and often, their decisions at which a 21st century reader might easily scoff.
All that being said, it is a lovely story in the truest sense – loves of the women and love of the gardens themselves. It has been compared with “Downton Abbey” and one could easily see this as a Masterpiece series. It is a visual novel in many ways.
In this instance, what I would have loved to read is the story of the garden’s transformations from the garden’s point of view. An anthropomorphic, historical novel, you might say. As a gardener longing for something a bit more tantalizing, this would have added a different dimension.