Merry Hall (Beverley Nichols Trilogy)

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I can’t understand why he isn’t more well-known, and I see he also wrote some mystery books which I really must read. The first of them, Down the Garden Path, centered on his home and garden at Glatton and has been in print almost continuously since 1932. Nichols completely won me over when he began praising Georgian architecture and deriding Tudor cottages in no uncertain terms.

I am a huge lover of Beverley’s books – I’d read them all the time if I didn’t think I’d turn into a terrible bore!They should be shut behind high walls, clutching the terrible bundles which they have brought into the world, and when they emerge into society, if they insist on bringing these bundles with them, they should see that they are properly cloaked, muted, sealed up and, above all, dry.

I did shudder whenever he described his cats, ‘One’ (a Siamese – I find them only slightly less repulsive than lilies) and ‘Four’, but his gardening descriptions are excellent and his critical humour irresistible. The garden has been tended for decades by Oldfield – a man of around seventy who worked for the last two of the house’s owners and knows the garden inside and out.This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest. I gave this 5 stars because it's uncomplicated, it's a true story, it takes place in England and it is all about gardening.