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Editorial Reviews

Whether one is in search of tranquility, love, or sustenance, the garden has been seen as the ideal haven for centuries. In this anthology from Christina Hardyment, listeners will travel from ancient China to the Isle of Man, getting a taste of the wide variety of gardens various cultures have produced. Paired with intricate and helpful descriptions of varying gardens, are romantic samples from classic writers such as John Evelyn and William Cowper. With a production lead by the English actor Anton Lesser, Pleasures of the Garden is a must-listen whether one is an avid gardener or just needs a metaphorical escape from the daily grind.

Publisher's Summary

Pleasures of the Garden begins in ancient China and ends on the Isle of Man; it admires both stately landscaped parks and a soap box full of red geraniums on a fire-escape. It shows that gardening is for everybody, whatever their resources. It features classic writers on gardens such as John Evelyn and Gertrude Jekyll, famous historical figures like Pliny, Francis Bacon and Thomas Jefferson, the novelists Jane Austen, Charlotte Brontë and Robert Louis Stevenson, and the poets John Donne, John Clare, W.B. Yeats and Rudyard Kipling.
Download the accompanying reference guide.
©2010 Christina Hardyment (P)2010 Naxos AudioBooks

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  • Deb
  • Berkeley, California USA
  • 05-07-13

Disappointing

What would have made The Pleasures of the Garden better?

A better narrator might have helped. I had hoped this anthology would be like "More Writers in the Garden: An Anthology of Garden Writing" but the narration was deadly dull and the selections not nearly as interesting.

Would you recommend The Pleasures of the Garden to your friends? Why or why not?

No because the narration is dull.

Would you be willing to try another one of the narrators’s performances?

Absolutely not.

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

The anthology contains some very good selections but not nearly as interesting as "More Writers in the Garden: An Anthology of Garden Writing," which I recommend highly.

1 of 2 people found this review helpful