A review by saguaros
In the Garden by Paul Mendez, Victoria Adukwei Bulley, Nigel Slater, Penelope Lively, Kerri ní Dochartaigh, Claire Lowdon, Jon Day, Francesca Wade, Daisy Lafarge, Jamaica Kincaid, Caroline Craig, Zing Tsjeng, Niellah Arboine

3.0

Perhaps after loving In the Kitchen so much, and knowing how much I love gardens, my expectations/excitement was a bit too high. Perhaps I am a littttlllee disappointed. It was more uneven for me as a collection than the previous one, and I am somewhat surprised by this. That said, I still enjoyed it—the essays are short, often beautiful. But it just wasn’t exactly what I was looking—hoping—for for a collection of essays about gardens. I’m not exactly sure what I was looking/hoping for, but it didn’t quite hit it for me. I still think it’s a fun collection to read and I’m looking forward to reading By the River next.

This having been published in 2021, I am realising it is one of the first books I read that references and talks about the lockdowns/pandemic so much. Which both feels weirdly distant already, and yet too soon at the same time.

My fave essays were, I think: A Common Inheritance, by Francesca Wade; Companion Planting, by Jon Day; Putting the Breaks On, by Niellah Arboine; Looking at the Garden, by Claire Lowdon.