A Countrywoman's Notes

Reviews / Votes

A COUNTRYWOMAN'S YEAR by Rosemary Verey (illustrated, 117 pp., Little, Brown, $19.95) likewise exemplifies the truth of Unamuno's principle that the concrete is also the universal. This collection of miscellaneous pieces, originally published as articles in Country Life magazine between 1979 and 1987, is more resolutely English than Ms. Verey's many other garden books, which have won her a large following in America. It wanders pleasantly into all the minutiae of daily life at Barnsley House, her country house in Gloucestershire. It speaks of hares and bees and wild flowers among the bracken, of lanes of holly and bramble, and of winter aconites in bloom in early February. "A Countrywoman's Year" may be the best book on gardening and the larger natural landscape to come from England in many a year. It is small, beautifully printed and handsomely illustrated with black-and-white prints by several artists. It speaks from the heart and it would be ruined, not improved, by photographs. I do not share direct knowledge of much that Rosemary Verey writes about -- thankfully so in the case of August thunderbugs, insects I suspect we are fortunate not to have in America. But she shares her knowledge so gracefully that it belongs to readers, no matter which side of the Atlantic Ocean they live on. She belongs to the grand tradition of British writing that includes Gilbert White, Vita Sackville-West and Margery Fish. The New York Times, 1 Dec 1991 A lovely little thing. Irish Times An entertaining small volume which captures the atmosphere of the garden throughout the year. Garden Answers