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Life in the Garden

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( 1,878 ratings, 337 reviews)
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
Life in the Garden by Penelope Lively is a delightful blend of memoir and botanical exploration. The author reflects on her lifelong passion for gardens, weaving her personal experiences with broader themes of art, literature, and the meaning of a garden in human life. This book offers an insightful journey into the relationship between gardens and those who cultivate them.
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

If you appreciate a perfect blend of gardening wisdom and personal reflection, this book artfully intertwines the love of nature with insightful memoirs. You might enjoy it if you’re drawn to exploring how gardens become an integral part of life, reflecting personal history and broader cultural narratives.

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Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

Life in the Garden is a memoir of the author's life in gardens and an exploration of gardens in literature.

Penelope Lively has always been a keen gardener. This book is partly a memoir of her own life in gardens—the large garden at home in Cairo where she spent most of her childhood, her grandmother's garden in a sloping Somerset field, then two successive Oxfordshire gardens of her own, and the smaller urban garden in the North London home she lives in today.

It is also a wise, engaging and far-ranging exploration of gardens in literature, from Paradise Lost to Alice in Wonderland, and of writers and their gardens, from Virginia Woolf to Philip Larkin.

Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?

Penelope Lively's Life in the Garden is praised for its richness, originality, and distinctive style, combining Lively's personal gardening experiences with the broader history of horticulture. Reviewers highlight its enchanting and scholarly approach, offering insights into influential authors and artists inspired by gardens. This reflective work is described as both a delightful and inspirational read, appealing especially to dedicated garden enthusiasts.

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Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9780241982181

Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 07 June 2018

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Penguin Books Ltd

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 12.0mm

Width: 128.0mm

Height: 197.0mm

Weight: 152g

Pages: 208

About the Author

Penelope Lively was born in Cairo, Egypt and spent her childhood there. She came to England at the age of twelve, in 1945, and went to boarding school in Sussex. She went on to read Modern History at St Anne's College, Oxford. In 1957 she married Jack Lively (who died in 1998). They had two children, Josephine and Adam. Jack Lively's academic career took the family from Swansea to Sussex and Oxford, and eventually to Warwick University, where he was Professor of Politics. Penelope Lively now has six grandchildren and lives in London.

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