This is the book that released my inner gardener – at least in theory. I’m lucky in that I have a nice garden behind my house. When we were getting some building work done a couple of years ago we had to move out. It was supposed to be for a few weeks but it ended up being over 6 months. During that time Colm and I were living in an apartment. Whenever anyone came to visit us they always said that it was a good-sized apartment and when we moved in first I thought it was. But after 6 months there were books everywhere and the little corner that I had designated my office had grown to half the room. What I missed most of all, though, was being able to walk around my garden and think about what I was writing. I first rented an apartment over 20 years ago and the lack of garden didn’t bother me at all. But when you get used to having the space you miss it when it’s gone.

The garden is a part of the house that still links Claire to her dead husband, Bill. She’s lost interest in it since his death and can’t bring herself to do much work to it. So eventually she calls in a gardener, who works his magic on her heart as well as the garden.

I used flowers and shrubs as chapter headings in this book. Some of my personal favourites are Jasmine (chapter 16) http://www.theflowerexpert.com/content/giftflowers/flowersandfragrances/jasmine

Pyracantha (chapter 22)

http://www.esveld.nl/htmldiaen/p/pygcha.htm

and Catanache, which is also known as Cupid’s Dart (Chapter 39)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/gardening/plants/plant_finder/plant_pages/157.shtml