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Book Review of The Writer in the Garden (Audio Cassette)

The Writer in the Garden (Audio Cassette)
Lazeeladee avatar reviewed on + 87 more book reviews


As their youth recedes many baby boomers find that a passion for gardening and books replaces a lust for firm bodies and smoky bars. This enchanting and unusual audio tape [HighBridge] offers up a spoken word celebration of flowers, earth and growing things....Some [passages] are funny, some are poignant, some are utterly hilarious. Even those that dream of paving over their backyards will enjoy this lovely audio -- USA Today, January 17, 1997

If you close your eyes and listen to these two spellbinding cassettes, you'll soon be walking down "paths of old brick" in Vita Sackville-West's famous green, gray, and white garden. Or touring Oxford Gardens, "the fairest things in England" with Henry James. This [HighBridge] audio anthology presents some 40 pieces of writing: the poetry and prose of fine writers of this century past. Effortlessly you'll ramble through floral borders and formal herb gardens, old-fashioned kitchen gardens, town gardens, country gardens...Two more of note, Gertrude Jekyll's thoughts on the benevolence of a rainfall and the redoubtable Edith Wharton's instructions on the correct way to landscape an Italian villa. -- Victoria, April 1997

In this season of seed catalogues and garden dreams, The Writer in the Garden is a pleasure. More than the 40 plus poems, excerpts, and short essays, the program defines the spirit of gardening. There's not just one view, we have selections from several respected garden writers...and authors know for their descriptions of, if not their interest in, gardens....Each piece seems to have a personality of its own reflective, imperious, funny or impassioned. The six narrators who present these wonderful selections are each perfectly cast to the pieces they read....Listening to the program should be an annual event, an inspiration to a new season of gardening. As a gift for a gardener there's nothing better [brought to you by HighBridge Audio]. -- Christian Science Monitor, February 27, 1997

Most of us pledge to read more, never knowing exactly when this will happen. And we're not usually willing to give up time in the garden. "The Writer in the Garden" allows you to immerse yourself in the garden classics while weeding the vegetables and deadheading the perennials....This two-cassette is a compendium of writings by 44 authors....We found ourselves nodding in agreement with Mirabel Osler's depiction of the gardeners' battle of the sexes in A Gentle Plea for Chaos...And we laughed out loud at Dean Hole's comments on The Purpose of a Garden. [brought to you by HighBridge Audio]. -- Garden Gate, April 1997

That's part of the [HighBridge] tape's charm - you feel the writers themselves are there with you. They're just talking to you as if it were a conversation among friends. -- Newsday, December 29, 1996

This is the first-ever audio book [brought to you by HighBridge Audio] anthology of garden writing. Nearly four dozen works (some excerpted) ranging from the classical to the contemporary, including essays, poems, fiction, memoirs, and, yes, even some practical advice, are beautifully evoked by six excellent readers....Lovely! -- HortIdeas, January 1997

Winner of the Earphones Award. No gardener should miss this [HighBridge} audio program. It can welcome spring, relax a weary back, brighten a dreary day and inspire plenty of garden projects both real and imagined. Drawn from essays, poetry and letters in a creative array of sources, the program defines the spirit of gardening. There's not just one view we have selections from several respected garden writers....The gardens too have great variety: gardens to be viewed, gardens to be dug in, gardens to inspire, English gardens, Southern gardens, Frances Hodgson Burnett's secret garden and Homer's garden of King Alcinous. Each piece seems to have a personality of its own reflective, imperious, funny or impassioned. The six narrators who present these wonderful selections are each perfectly cast to the pieces they read....As a gift for a gardener there could be nothing better. -- Audiofile, June 1997

Winner of the Quill & Trowel Award of Excellence for Best Electronic Media Production of 1997. -- Garden Writers Association of America, 1998