Re: your list of Nichols favorites

In a message dated 1/29/02 11:00:30 PM Eastern Standard Time, 
dthoma@teleologic.net writes:

<< I would appreciate a copy of your list of favorite Nichols books. >>

Diann,

Here is what I like.  I sent it to the list also as I have two other letters 
I have be meaning to answer on the same subject.  Over on the Alpine list is 
a great lover of Beverley Nichols and he is trying to organize a group.  That 
may be a bit too much for me but if he succeeds, I will post it.

Nichols fancied himself a journalist and raconteur.  He lived in London in 
the l930's and wrote for nearly fifty years.  He wrote a few children's 
books, loved cats and classical music.  He was as witty as a Brit can be 
weaving solid garden information into tales of eccentric people and fun 
events.

First three with garden a theme, a trilogy:

"Down the Garden Path" - a runaway best seller much to his amazement. Still 
is.
"A Thatched Roof"
"A Village in the Valley"

Next:

"Green Grows the City"  - An account of making a city garden with more 
eccentrics and a very good garden.  Here is instructions on stenciling on 
walls with shadows, a great idea.

Next:

"All I Could Never Be" - first autobiographical book followed by others where 
he begins to speak about his lifelong problems with his his overpowering 
father.  Nichols is a Univeristy man.  Some gardening creeps in here.

Another trilogy:  

"Merry Hall"  Gaskin, the butler who really existed is still in place and 
this is now a new building and a new garden with some more exccentrics in the 
garden.  The love of horticulture is stronger yet in these books.
"Sunlight on the Lawn"
"Laughter on the Stairs" - you will be be pleased by the wit shown in these 
books, gardens and wit - the dated characters may be unknown to very young 
readers, but imagination will do.

Next: 

"Garden Open Today"
"Garden Open Tomorrow"  - more serious books, the second for older gardeners, 
Nichols is getting older.

Others:  Nichols suffered several depressions, a religious or cultish period, 
assignments to various countries on political missions and always wrote on 
plants at the same time.  There are many other books, one on his impressions 
of the US in the thirties and forties.

He was apalled at American style flower arranging and club women. He said 
that every American woman gardener he met was president of something.  He was 
so appalled at flowers"chopped off at their necks and laid flat on baskets" 
that he wrote a book on the subject.  It is hard to find and quite expensive 
in the used markets.

Finally there is a biography, "Beverley Nichols, A Life" by Bryan Connon. It 
is not flattering and I am sorry that I read it.  It deflates the magic.  
Nichols is widely quoted by other authors and loved by all new gardeners.

Several books by Eric Grissell which are easy to find,  credit Nichols with 
changing his life.  His first book, "Thyme on my Hands" has a chapter 
recounting his trip to the UK to find Nichols and thank him.  Grissell's 
books are a pleasant read also, all essays and getting better each time.

Nichols wrote on political subjects, social doings of his times and wrote 
some plays.  But he is known for the garden books and remembered for the 
garden books.  Read the first three listed as later he states he has become a 
much better gardener and would like to do away with the first three but they 
are the ones with the most magic.

I keep Nichols and when I am in need of a lift, I read a few of them.  You 
will feel that you wish you could return to his village and "pop in".

Claire Peplowski
NYS z4



 

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