She is befriended by eccentric, sharp-tongued, Miss Foot, who recommends, Murat, an Albanian migrant, made to feel out of place among the locals, to help Hassie in the garden. Through Hass's eyes, as she's the more regular resident, we see how they differ – in decor, in willingness to befriend the locals, and in so much else. Margot spends much of her time in London so Hassie is left much to her own devices and one of the first projects she chooses to tackle is the vast but neglected garden. This might make the novel sound genteel and a little bit clichéd, and while Vickers does depict an idealised version of village life she does, occasionally, let the real world intrude — there’s a low level of social commentary in the storyline related to prejudice against immigrants, domestic violence and child poverty.

The Gardener 2 - Salley Vickers On writing The Gardener 2 - Salley Vickers

It was a joy to read a book where the words were important with an extensive but easily understood vocabulary. Our narrator, Hassie Days (it is revealed) is writing to her unborn child and the father has got to be Murat, the Albanian gardener with the beautiful white teeth and dazzling smile.The house is in a village on the Welsh Marches and while Margot is off in London, it’s left to Hassie to haul its grounds into shape. She succeeds both naturally and supernaturally in a novel that notices the possibilities of healing among the fragilities of life. She becomes interested in the mysterious previous owner of Knight’s Fee, Nellie East, whose notebooks she finds and reads; a young and wayward girl, Penny Lane, dashes into her life; and then there is the gardener, Murat, employed to tend the grounds of Hassie’s and Margot’s new home.

The Gardener (Audio Download): Salley Vickers, Salley Vickers The Gardener (Audio Download): Salley Vickers, Salley Vickers

From these basics, Vickers explores Hassie’s traumatic affair, her prickly relationship with Margot, her exploration of the history of Nelly East and of Knight’s Fee, her wrestling with the misery of artistic hack work doing the illustrations for ‘Elfine’ whom she loathes, her growing interest in and talent as a botanical artist, her sense of the otherworldly in the garden, and her discovery of what love might and can actually be. I have enjoyed a number of Salley Vickers books and initially there was some of the insightful and witty prose that I have come to expect. In the few books of Vickers’ which I have read to date, I have always felt that the author has an unwavering sense of empathy toward her characters.While Margot continues her London life in high finance, Hassie is left alone to work the large, long-neglected garden. Salley Vickers was born in Liverpool, the home of her mother, and grew up as the child of parents in the British Communist Party. Settling in the country Hass feels a connection to her father through the birds in the garden and the countryside. She has worked, variously, as a cleaner, a dancer, an artist’s model, a teacher of children with special needs, a university teacher of literature, and a psychoanalyst. This to me was a reminder that sometimes you just need to read books that explore relationships, rather than always solving murder mysteries.