Just in this month…
First friends… a page in Kent Life with photographs from the launch, such a lovely memory:
And then reviews, a happy-making review by the garden writer, Annie Gatti in the magazine, Gardens Ilustrated:
And if you still haven’t got a copy of Digging Up Paradise, and would like a signed one, I do have some copies here and would be happy to add a dedication for you. Leave a comment or email me (sarahsalway@gmail.com), and we can arrange payment, postage etc.
I’ve just been struggling with the issue of friends and reviews. Because a friend wrote this: http://veddw.com/reviews/a-praise-poem-to-the-place-by-elizabeth-musgrave/ about my garden and it’s so to the point about the garden.
But/and- we need to be ‘selling’ our books, our gardens. Uncomfortable though?
Oh I should have probably made it clearer – the friends are in the Kent Life launch piece, and the Gardens Illustrated is the review bit of the title. I want to say that Annie Gatti is NOT a friend, but that sounds unfriendly! I mean she’s not a friend doing a review, I have just met her once in passing and admire her writing very much, which is why I was so pleased.
But that piece you directed me too here is so well thought-through and considered about your garden. I love this – “how to create something which belongs.” I think that’s what we want to do with all our creative work, to make something that fits – but with a slight edge of surprise so it doesn’t just ‘slot in’ but changes the world slightly by its presence. Belongs is a good word here. I’ve just been reading an interview with Henri Cole in Paris Review, in which he says ‘A poem is not just an act of the mind.’ I think that is the same for all creativity. He also says ‘I divide the world into two types of people, those who want to control something and those who want to make something. I’m attracted to the makers.’
And that’s maybe where another uncomfortable bit comes in.
Interesting – but is the world really so divisible? And – hmm.. – we may be attracted to the makers but they too can make us uncomfortable. Isn’t that what that ‘slight edge of surprise’ is likely to add? (but how often does that happen in a garden?..changing the subject slightly…..)
Xxx
Reviews are welcome wherever they come from…. Part of growth and development and some of my closest friends are my most honest critics. I also love real books.
I wish garden makers felt like that and I absolutely agree with you.
Leave a Reply