A-book-I-got sent: and a new reviewer. Welcome to Susan Wright.
Anne Wareham, editor.
‘The Twilight Garden’ by Lia Leendertz is all about “creating a garden that entrances by day and comes alive by night”.
But does it offer that? Well, it’s glossily produced, has lots and lots of smart photographs and a foreword by Cleve West as enticement.
It is not a challenging book. It assumes no knowledge on the part of the reader, making it a gentle starting point for the new – and most definitely female – garden owner. Part I – Making Your Twilight Garden a Reality – takes up a meagre 64 pages (including some of those lovely photographs) on the bones of a garden and then only lightly. There’s not nearly enough useful information for a novice.
Thereafter follow a few pages on parties. It is all very pretty and wispy. Part 2 is 130 pages of a fairly standard list of white and pale plants suitable for twilight gardens that you could find anywhere without much effort. And that’s it.
So a yummy mummy, don’t get your nails dirty lifestyle book, aimed at the young and inexperienced with its talk of hanging nightlights in baby food jars in trees and being kind to wildlife (Bats and moths. Not foxes.) I don’t doubt there’s a good market for such an attractively produced trifle. But you’d soon move on to something more substantial.
Susan Wright
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