The Morville Hours: The Story of a Garden

An exquisitely written book about one particular English garden—and about the arc of life.

Nobody writes about gardens like the English. And few English writers have ever been as eloquent or astute as Katherine Swift. Some twenty years ago, she and her husband leased a house in the town of Shropshire with a garden that became her passion. Driven to uncover its history, she takes readers on a journey back through time, linking the stories of those who lived in the house and tended the same red soil with her family’s own saga. Spanning hundreds of years, The Morville Hours is also deeply personal—a journey through the seasons and also one of self-exploration, of finding one’s place in the world and putting down roots.

With each chapter bringing to life an hour of the day or night—from the crunch of grass underfoot at midnight on a frosty New Year’s Eve to the bloom of blue-black damsons picked on a golden September afternoon—Swift pulls us into her world and, at the same time, expands and illuminates our own. For anyone with a passion for gardens and gardening, The Morville Hours will be unforgettable.