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A review by marilynw
The Last Garden in England by Julia Kelly
4.0
The Last Garden in England by Julia Kelly
Narrated by Shiromi Arserio, Marisa Calin, Danielle Cohen, Katherine Littrell, and Siobhan Waring
What a lovely story that challenged me a bit with it's three time periods and many characters. We never stay in one place very long and that seemed to help me not lose track of the many people we meet. The connection between the times is both a garden and bloodlines (or not).
In 1907, Venetia Smith has made a reputation for herself as the designer of gardens for the wealthy. Her designs are innovative and her latest commission is to design the gardens of Highbury House. Her reputation is her most coveted asset and she guards it as such. It is when she meets the brother of the lady of the house that things go very wrong.
In 1944, orphaned Beth Pedley has been pushed from her aunt's home to find her own way. She is a land girl now and she will be working on a farm outside of the village of Highbury. She comes to love this life and this place, she gains friends and people she cares about and who care about her. It's as if she was made for this hard work and feeling of belonging and but she'll have to speak up to keep this life.
In the present day, Emma Lovett restores forgotten and neglected gardens. She is thrilled to be hired to restore the Highbury House estate gardens, which had been design by Venetia Smith, whose work she so much admires. To restore the gardens to their original state Emma needs to know as much as she can about the gardens' past.
The distinctive voices of the five narrators helped me to slip into each timeline. My favorite timeline was that of 1944 but all three of them are interesting and by the end of the book I understood how everything was connected. The 1907 timeline is Venetia's story and the present day timeline is Emma's story, but the 1944 timeline focuses on many more people and that is the heart of the story for me. Being in the midst of WWII and with the estate being requisitioned to aid the wartime efforts, there is even the threat that the gardens will be plowed under. That is when widowed estate owner widow Diana Symonds puts her foot down. Present day Emma has so many questions about the past and one curiosity is what has happened to the key to the overgrown winter garden. Slowly the past unfolds for her and the reader.
Pub Jan 12 2021
Narrated by Shiromi Arserio, Marisa Calin, Danielle Cohen, Katherine Littrell, and Siobhan Waring
What a lovely story that challenged me a bit with it's three time periods and many characters. We never stay in one place very long and that seemed to help me not lose track of the many people we meet. The connection between the times is both a garden and bloodlines (or not).
In 1907, Venetia Smith has made a reputation for herself as the designer of gardens for the wealthy. Her designs are innovative and her latest commission is to design the gardens of Highbury House. Her reputation is her most coveted asset and she guards it as such. It is when she meets the brother of the lady of the house that things go very wrong.
In 1944, orphaned Beth Pedley has been pushed from her aunt's home to find her own way. She is a land girl now and she will be working on a farm outside of the village of Highbury. She comes to love this life and this place, she gains friends and people she cares about and who care about her. It's as if she was made for this hard work and feeling of belonging and but she'll have to speak up to keep this life.
In the present day, Emma Lovett restores forgotten and neglected gardens. She is thrilled to be hired to restore the Highbury House estate gardens, which had been design by Venetia Smith, whose work she so much admires. To restore the gardens to their original state Emma needs to know as much as she can about the gardens' past.
The distinctive voices of the five narrators helped me to slip into each timeline. My favorite timeline was that of 1944 but all three of them are interesting and by the end of the book I understood how everything was connected. The 1907 timeline is Venetia's story and the present day timeline is Emma's story, but the 1944 timeline focuses on many more people and that is the heart of the story for me. Being in the midst of WWII and with the estate being requisitioned to aid the wartime efforts, there is even the threat that the gardens will be plowed under. That is when widowed estate owner widow Diana Symonds puts her foot down. Present day Emma has so many questions about the past and one curiosity is what has happened to the key to the overgrown winter garden. Slowly the past unfolds for her and the reader.
Pub Jan 12 2021