Book description
A host of vividly caught characters are here: Mirabel's extrovert,
free-spirited mother Phyllis; Aylmer Vallance, who with extraordinary
love letters would rescue her mother from a twilight life; Stella
Bowen, Phyllis's lifelong friend and fellow student under Ezra Pound,
their introduction to the London literati, notably Ford Madox Ford.
Throughout Mirabel's childhood, it was Stella who would be the one
fast colour amid her mercurial mother's love affairs.
And turning closer to the present - to new friendships, the paring
away of previous assumptions and conventions and the serendipities of
chance acquaintance - we encounter Michael, Mirabel's late husband,
who's barbaric public-school childhood contrasted so dramatically with
Mirabel's own, affectionate and carefree; whose repressed father so
adored roses; their childhood meeting; their delight in their children
and beloved Shropshire garden, a character in its own right, full of
the joy of the unexpected.
Celebrated author of A Gentle Plea for Chaos, Mirabel
Osler's meditation on the profound pleasures of writing, gardens,
travel and food is both graceful and deeply affecting.
Mirabel Osler is the critically acclaimed author of A Breath
from Elsewhere and the classic A Gentle Plea for Chaos.
She lives in Shropshire.
