Merry Hall (Beverley Nichols Trilogy)

Product Information

First Edition, with 3 frontispieces, decorative titles, numerous illustrations in the text and coloured pictorial endpapers, original cloth (red/green/blue respectively), yellow cloth backs lettered in gilt, coloured tops, fore-edges very lightly spotted else a near fine set in unclipped dustwrapper, the wrappers minimally chafed at heads and tails of backstrips. The garden has been tended for decades by Oldfield – a man of around seventy who worked for the last two of the house’s owners and knows the garden inside and out. I am glad I did not see it, as it was, for the image is held in my mind forever, of that beautiful old house as it must have looked, that autumn day, through the copper beech. Oh Chloris, I too hope you are soon recovered from your lurgy, but in the meantime I am glad you are taking the opportunity to be a little self-indulgent.

His verbal sparring with several neighbors is also funny, as long as one doesn't read too much into his words. The garden was surrounded by a variegated holly hedge which Beverley and his partner, Cyril got rid of by setting fire to it. Lol…poor pianist too, he has my sympathy, we had a loft conversion and we take our lives in our hands every time we stand up straight under a window, I swear I have repetitive brain injury syndrome!Nichols' enthusiasm is infectious and made me look at flowers with renewed joy but don't worry if you are not an avid gardener, Nichols was not bothered with the day to day business of weeding etc, he has a vision of creating a place of beauty which he shares with the reader.

These semi-fictional accounts of a large garden restoration are among the wittiest books I've ever read, gardening or otherwise. It is entertaining to read about the twee posturings of Rose till you realize that most of his contemporary readers would have known whom he was skewering (and till you realize that he has a fair amount of twee in his own nature). This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest. I’m used to humourous garden literature being more about the journey and the gardener himself rather than what the garden is composed of, so such guidance was surprising but welcome. The first is the most popular one and is mainly about Beverley discovering the joys of gardening, as a very young man.

I like the idea of a book by Beverley Nichols about his life – but I am not mad about reading abou gardens, although you make this sound very appealing indeed.