A review by wahistorian
The Last Garden in England by Julia Kelly

4.0

This lovely book uses three generations of fictional women—garden designer Venetia Smith in 1907, land girl Beth Pedley in 1944, and garden restorer Emma Lovell in 2021—to describe the life of the landscape at Highbury House. This is more than a garden story, however; it is also a narrative about women’s aspirations and purpose, the strictures of social mores and class, and how the events of the wider world impinge upon people’s otherwise quiet lives, especially in wartime. The book had a bit too much romance in it for my taste, as each woman is happily paired off in the end against all odds. But it was fascinating to watch the garden cone together in 1907, to watch it be repurposed for the war effort in 1944, and then restored and modernized in the present-day. There is something beautiful and restorative about a landscape that endures and provides respite and hope for people over time.