Literary Gardens by Sandra Lawrence, illustrated by Lucille Clerc

 

This beautiful book looks at a number of fictional gardens, selected to offer a range of different types of gardens in different geographical locations and different genres of writing and including the sacred (the ancient Hindi epic Ramayana by legendary poet Valmiki) the famous (such as Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll) and the less well known (including Jorge Luis Borges' The Garden of Forking Paths.) Each garden is lovingly recreated in exquisitely detailed paintings by Lucille Clerc, while Sandra Lawrence explores the role of each garden in its particular story and explores the inspirations that might have fed into the author's creation. 

The first fictional garden to be discussed, is unsurprisingly, the garden of Misselthwaite Manor which appears in the 1911 classic The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett, who was herself a keen gardener. The garden, that we are told is mostly fictional, and the robin that lives there (based on a robin that Hodgson Burnett befriended in her own garden) serve to enable the protagonist Mary to discover her best self. In contrast, the garden in Philippa Pearce's Tom's Midnight Garden (a book that is forever, in my mind, connected to The Secret Garden by the trope of a child discovering a garden) is closely modelled on the author's own garden. Whether entirely fictional or closely inspired by real gardens, these are well described gardens. The garden in Patrick White's The Hanging Garden. however, is shown only obliquely as if the adults reading the novel aren't allowed to trespass into this garden where the young protagonists play. (This book is now on my wishlist, as I love White's writing, his wonderfully odd style that makes the reader look at things in a different way.) Another garden that is barely described is that in The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twen Eng, which uses the garden as metaphor for the impermanence of life. (I now want to re-read this book.) The maze in Larry's Party by Carol Shields is largely inspired by the author's own love of mazes, as is the protagonist's tour of mazes across Europe. The weirdest garden of all must be that of Death in Terry Pratchett's Mort, where everything is black and where shovelling manure may (or may not) turn out to reveal the uttermost secret of time and space. 

The differing responses of characters to gardens is also explored, from Hercule Poirot's discomfort in Agatha Christie's The Hallowe'en Garden and the rabbits' fear of the gardener in Beatrix Potter's Tale of Peter Rabbit. Gardens are often presented as havens, not least in Giorgio Bassani's The Garden of the Finzi-Continis, where the characters find short-lived refuge from the realities of Mussolini's Italy. Another well-used trope is that of the garden gate as a portal, as in H G Wells' story The Door in the Wall, in which the main character repeatedly passes by the door to his dream garden without taking the chance to enter the garden itself. 

As well as the gardens themselves, Literary Gardens looks at plants, including entirely fictional plants (such as the triffids in John Wyndham's The Day of the Triffids), poisonous plants (for example in Nathaniel Hawthorne's Rappaccini's Daughter) and 'world trees' including the Tree of Knowledge from the Bible and Yggrdrasil,from Nordic legend. I was interested to read that Alexandre Dumas' The Black Tulip, set during the historical Dutch tulip mania, set off a quest that is still going today, to grow a perfectly black tulip. 

It's worth giving a good long look at the illustrations. The details are amazing - that really looks like Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall hidden away in the orchid house in the illustration for Raymond Chandler's The Big Sleep and how many bunnies can you find in the illustration for The Tale of Peter Rabbit? 

Other works mentioned include the short stories The Enchanted Garden by Italo Calvino (whose parents were botanists) and Kew Gardens by Virginia Woolf; Daphne DuMaurier's Rebecca; Elizabeth and her German Garden by Elizabeth von Arnim (Mary Annette Beauchamp); The Chronicles of Narnia by C S Lewis; Sei Shonagen's Pillow Book; My Garden (Book) by Jamaica Kincaid, The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros; The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald and Scene Two of Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest.

Not only a wonderfully vivid recreation of a variety of fictional gardens, this book also acts as a themed collection of literary reviews and as a guide on how to use gardens and plants in creating atmosphere in stories. After reading this, you'll not only want to re-read it again and enjoy the paintings, but you're likely to end up with a whole list of other books to read or re-read. 

Literary Gardens by Sandra Lawrence, illustrated by Lucille Clerc, published (18 September, 2025) by Frances Lincoln, an imprint of Quarto. 

Note: I was sent a free pdf of this book in return for an honest review.  

The New Global Possible by Ani Dasgupta

 

 Subtitled Rebuilding Optimism in the Age of Climate Crisis, this is a book of informed optimism from the President and CEO of The World Resources Institute, an organization with over forty years of experience at the forefront of the climate movement. The book comes with high profile recommendation, including a foreword from Christiana Figueres, so I was delighted to be asked to review it. The chapters of this book are organized around 6 key themes:

Multilateralism: Countries Can Collaborate
Technology: We Must Innovate for Good
Business: The Limits of Voluntary Action
Justice: It Is Not a Choice
Cities: Laboratories for Change
Economy: A New Growth Story

Using these topics as the basis, this very detailed, impressively researched book explores various aspects of the climate crisis, sharing stories of initiatives that have worked, from the creation of extensive cycling infrastructure in Copenhagen to the large scale use of satellite photography to combat illegal deforestation to the successes of various high-profile international conferences over the years since the establishment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 1988. The author is very good at identifying what is really important, the need for governments to work together, both with other countries but also with civic society and with business. 

The real conclusion is that we need to change the systems we work with, to ensure that we can better address the issues we face. And here is where the optimistic view runs into problems. After reading all the inspiring stories of forward thinking cities, collaborative projects and creative solutions, I was left wondering how we are going to achieve the overall systems change that we need so that these individual beacons of hope can actually act as the basis for a sustainable future across the world. As the author says:

"we won’t achieve our goals unless we fix the overarching economic system that incentivizes pollution, deforestation, and economic inequality. These scourges aren’t glitches to be patched up one by one; they are design features of the very economic system we have developed over centuries."

Are we prepared to dismantle that economic system and if so, do we have any chance of dismantling it quickly enough? 

I found this book both fascinating and hopeful and can definitely recommend it to anyone who is interested in a cuatiously optimistic overview of where we currently stand in relation to the climate crisis. 

The New Global Possible (9781633310667, Disruption Books, published 9 September, 2025

 

Disclaimer: I was sent a free pdf of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Late Summer expedition to Arthur's Seat

Although the trees are losing their leaves early due to the dry Spring and Summer we've had, the weather still feels like Summer here. We chose Arthur's Seat for yesterday's walk as I particularly wanted to see another Small Copper butterfly (one of my favourite butterflies) before the end of the season. And we were lucky! This beautiful little Small Copper posed for us on the path

We chose a different route than the one we usually use to walk round Arthur's Seat  - partly enforced as part of the main route is closed due to the risk of rock fall after the recent fires on top of the hill. You can see some of the area affected by the fire in the photo below, though it may not entirely clear, the higher land in the background has been burned. The fire was probably caused by a carelessly dropped cigarette or similar and spread quickly in the dry conditions. It was put out pretty quickly by the fire brigade.  

The views around Arthur's Seat are always beautiful 

 the hillside path 

a view towards Salisbury Crags 

  

a view of Arthur's Seat itself  

 

 a view over to Calton Hill 

 

We also stopped at Duddingston Loch (above) where we were greeted by this handsome male pheasant

 

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I'm delighted to have a poem included in the selection published by the Ekphrastic Review in response to the painting Eschatalogical by Kitty North.

A Berry Bright Riverside Walk

 I did my regular litter picking, wildlife recording walk along Edinburgh's Water of Leith this morning. It was a lovely morning, the sunshine looking lovely through the late Summer leaves

I was delighted to find this clump of Cuckoo Pint, which oddly I've never noticed before. 

 

I often see the berries at this time of year, but rarely see the arums. Luckily the clump above is in quite a memorable location so I hope to be able to find the arums in the spring. Wikipedia has a good page about this fascinating plant, along with a photo of the arum stage. 

Ant Invasion (Malawi, 1991)

As if from nowhere
an endless stream of large black ants
invaded our home.

. 

We had become fond of their smaller cousins

that seemed to kiss

as they passed each other on our kitchen walls

but these sharp-jawed soldiers marched

through every room –

our house a mere obstacle on their route.

.

Walking too close to walls

we risked our feet being nipped

by a member of this single-minded colony

just travelling from A to B.

.

And in this land carved out from forest

who are the invaders anyway?

 

 

originally published in the Russell Streur Nature Poetry Anthology published by North of Oxford.  

 

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I published a new post on my Crafty Green Poet Substack today, you can read it here. 

 

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I'm happy to have a haiku included in the September 2025 issue of Sense and Sensibility.  

Robin

 

autumn sunshine -
the robin's song
changes key 

 

previously published on Haiku Seeds.  

Weekend Walks

 Yesterday we had a lovely walk around Blackford Pond and the Hermitage of Braid. The pond is looking quite low after the very dry year we've had so far (though it has been raining occasionally over the past week). 

The Braid Burn is also quite low where it flows through the Hermitage  

and the grass at Midmar Paddock is looking very yellow 

 On Friday lunchtime we had walked the Maroon Mile from Tynecastle Stadium to the War Memorial at Haymarket. The Maroon Mile has been punctuated with information boards about local history and the history of Hearts Football Club to celebrate the club's 150th anniversary. North Merchiston Cemetery (of which I'm a member of the Friends Group) hosts two information boards, one celebrating the wildlife of the cemetery (including the 'Footballer Hoverfly' (Helophilus pendulus) which hasn't been marked with a photo)

 and the other highlighting the people buried in the cemetery who had connections with Hearts. 

I've written a wee bit more about the Maroon Mile over on my Shapeshifting Green blog. You can read it here. 

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In the run up to the 2026 Scottish Parliament Elections, Scottish Wildlife Trust are asking our politicians to Take Nature Seriously. read more here.