Review by Booklist Review
While Sissinghurst epitomizes the grandeur and luxuriance of estate gardening, it more importantly stands as a testament to the tenacity of literary Vita Sackville-West and her politician husband, Harold Nicolson, who presciently and daringly rescued the Elizabethan-era ruins from total devastation. From the minute they became owners in the 1930s, the couple brought their own considerable, significantly different skills to bear on the restoration. As Nicolson constructed a formal architectural landscape design, Sackville-West became a plantswoman extraordinaire, educating herself on the merits of an astonishing array of shrubs, trees, bulbs and perennials to create a garden that was crammed with an endless display of color, texture and scent. Raven who is married to their grandson Adam Nicolson, who has written about the twenty-first-century challenges facing the estate in Sissinghurst, an Unfinished History (2010) combines excerpts from Sackville-West's archives and weekly Observer columns with her own personal experiences of life at Sissinghurst to give a nearly plant-by-plant account of how this international treasure was created and maintained.--Haggas, Carol Copyright 2014 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Novelist Sackville-West (1892-1962) was also a gardener and wrote brilliantly on horticulture. To pair contemporary garden writing with Sackville-West's classic sparklers takes confidence, experience, and audacity. Happily, Raven (The Cutting Garden), another gardener in the Sackville-West family (she's married to Vita's grandson), meets every challenge in this laudable book. Sackville-West's plantings complemented the designs of her husband, Harold Nicholson, who wanted to revitalize Sissinghurst, a "ruined Elizabethan hunting palace... in the pretty wooded part of the Kentish Weald." Both women address "The People and the Place," touchstones in Sissinghurst's design; both also consider the big picture in "Vita's Garden Themes," which explains Sackville-West's "cram-cram" planting, and in "The Smaller Canvas," which covers cut flowers, container plants, and even garden "jokes" and Christmas plants. The book is crammed with photos and quotes (from Sackville-West: "A flowerless room is a soul-less room..."). The two voices remain distinct without clashing, and Raven's organization of the book and selections from Sackville-West's work buttress her own canny observations. (Nov.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Kirkus Book Review
British gardener Raven (Wild Flowers, 2012) integrates Sackville-West's writings into a gardener's guide to one of England's finest landscapes, which was laid out with a studied nonchalance.The book is packed with photographs, a boon for readers unfamiliar with botanical terminology, though Raven kindly adds some English equivalents for many of the named species. The opening short history of Sissinghurst from the 16th century is actually unnecessary. The real story is Sackville-West and her husband, Harold Nicolson. (Raven lives on the grounds with her husband, Adam Nicolson, Sackville-West's grandson.) Vita grew up at Knole, a beautiful estate and stately home in Kent. Since she was female, she was unable to inherit Knole when her parents died. Sissinghurst, 20 miles away, came up for sale, and Vita viewed the derelict house and grounds as a Sleeping Beauty in need of rescue. Harold laid out the bones of the garden, executing the structure of walks, hedges and intimate small rooms. Vita's hand can be seen everywhere. She demanded absolute lack of formality and planted Harold's formal structure with a maximum of informality. Her style displayed a fine carelessness caught between the wild and the controlled, and her overall philosophy became, "Cram, cram, cram, every chink and cranny." Due to her time on the grounds, Raven ably describes the beauty of Sissinghurst. "An enchanting garden like Sissinghurst is, I would say, at its most beautiful at precisely the point where its informality is about to tip over into chaos," she writes. Devoted gardeners will relish the lists of plants favored by Sackville-West, and those who dabble in gardening will learn that gardens aren't made in a day, a year or even a decade. Enjoyable for gardeners and lovers of quaint British landscapes. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
