This collection offers a meditation on the garden from twenty great international writers.

Like writing, gardening is an act of imagination and faith, and so it should be no surprise that many fine writers have turned their hand to the soil and brought their gardens back to the page. This anthology gathers together the best from around the world and across the centuries. The Roman essayist Pliny muses on "The Smell of Good Ground," while Katharine S. White, garden columnist for The New Yorker, takes in the fragrance of roses. In Bloomsbury's Britain, Vita Sackville-West singles out the Transvaal Daisy from her gardens at Sissinghurst, while medieval herbalist John Gerard extolls the potato as the "Marvel of the World" and Bertie Stephens reminisces about being a gardener for Thomas Hardy. The New World pioneer Catharine Parr Traill is here, as well as contemporary writers Germaine Greer, Jamaica Kincaid, and Patrick Lane.

Rich with the protean observations, insights, and inspirations of more than twenty writers, the book gives the last word to Gertrude Jeckyll, the grande dame of British garden design, who shares her gardening credo: "The lesson I have thoroughly learnt, and wish to pass on to others, is to know the enduring happiness that the love of a garden gives."

Published in partnership with the David Suzuki Foundation.

Merilyn Simonds is the author of twelve books ranging from internationally acclaimed literary fiction to bestselling practical nonfiction. Her work of creative nonfiction, The Convict Lover, was a finalist for the Governor General's Award; her most recent novel, The Holding, was a New York Times Editors' Choice selection. She lives in the country near Kingston, Ontario, well away from nighttime city light.

Merilyn Simonds' profile page

"All stories are eloquently written and insightful...Whether treating the garden as a long-time friend or as a nuisance thanks to weeds, Gardens is a philosophical overview of the garden and all the things it represents to people."

Shelf Life

"Good reading for days you can't garden."

Guelph Mercury

"Sometimes it's too hot, too dreamy, for that big, fat novel or even that mindless genre tale. Sometimes all we want is a few choice snippets, something we can pick up and put down at whim. The latest pair of titles in a short series of handsomely produced, wee literary anthologies from Greystone Books will do just nicely, particularly the one from novelist and non-fiction author Merliyn Simonds. Gardens: A Literary Companion is perfect for that short hammock break between weedings."

Toronto Star

"Gardens is a lovely bouquet of essays from 20 inveterate gardeners. Each is beautifully written and blessedly brief. Something to read over a cup of tea, between rooting out the goutweed and digging in the lilies."

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