Merry Hall (Beverley Nichols Trilogy)

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But as Beverley told his sceptical friend who viewed the house with him: ‘ Merely because one has lots of rooms one needn’t use them’.

Beverley Nichols' second and best-known trilogy forms a delightful chronicle of the enhancement of his Georgian manor house and gardens at Ashtead in Surrey. Pages are bright and clear with light foxing and tanning to text block edges, pastedowns and free endpapers. Whenever I’ve asked about for recommendations of good gardening books, Nichols is invariably mentioned, either for the Merry Hall trilogy or the earlier Down the Garden Path, both semi-fictional chronicles of his gardening efforts at his homes. There was talk of the police being involved and of course this was at a time when homosexuality was illegal. Thanks for the tip about the little arrows – being a techno-idiot I just thought that was a normal WordPress thing, as it appears on all the blogs I look at.Nichols isn't just funny-he's wickedly insightful, poking jibes at all the various personality "types" one runs into in the horticulture world. He also was a homosexual though there is nothing explicit in the book to bring your attention to that. I was very curious to read them, as I love the acidic style of writing of Mr Nichols, and he does not disappoint.

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