Gardener's Nightcap

This wonderful illustration is taken from the Gardener's Nightcap book re-printed by the fantastic Persephone Books.  I recently found out about Persephone Books from the lovely Sarah Hardaker at  Hardaker and Pope and have since ordered books from them.  They specialise in neglected fiction and non-fiction, books written by women for women and about women!  They include novels, short stories, cookery books and this gardening book. 

Muriel Stuart was a successful and well-known poet during and just after the First World War. She then had two children, gave up writing poetry and took to gardening with enormous enthusiasm and dedication. She wrote only two books, Fool’s Garden (1936), about creating a garden in Surrey, and the Gardener’s Nightcap. After the war, for thirty years, she was a well-known columnist for gardening magazines. Although a great beauty, Muriel Stuart was shy and self-contained – and happiest in her garden.

This publisher is a real find and the books are beautiful, all covered with dove grey paper and all featuring interesting end-papers taken from the era in which they were written.

Comments

[Liz]

Lovely post Emma, such wonderful illustrations too. I may have to check out the books as I'm sure my mum would appreciate them too :)

[islandgardener]

I love old gardening books! Thanks for sharing info about this author. I have been slowly working my way through one called "Gardening on Nothing a Year", written in the 30s also. Fun!

[Michele]

Fab books... I am currently reading A fortnight in September...
So many books.. so little time!

Michelex

[Lauren]

Great post- thanks for the tip!

[zerozero]

Persephone books are all so beautifully done. I loved this book by Muriel Stuart, along with her 'Fool's Garden'. It is hard to find much information about her and her gardening work. Thanks for this post!