Book: Merry Hall

[bunnyjadwiga]

I'm not sure where I heard about Beverly Nichols' gardening books... such as Down the Garden Path and Merry Hall, but I did get my mitts on one and began reading it just when a little bit of arch post-war gay country gardener would do me the best good.

Nichols, a bachelor, in search of his perfect and last home with garden, buys basically a mansion in post-war (WWII) England, whose 5 acre grounds have much potential. He moves in with his two cats and devoted manservant (in the hired staff sense, my dear, this was published in the 1950s for general consumption!) begins plotting the garden, recruits friends and laborers to help with removing what's wrong, and slowly gains the trust of his gardener, a brilliant agriculturist who has been there more than 40 years and is disinclined to alter the plans of the previous 40 years worth of families. He also spars with Miss Emily, a rather encroaching neighbor, and Our Rose, a rather artsy floral designer, living in the neighborhood.

If you're familiar with Angela Thirkell*, there is a certain amount ofThirkell's reckless small scale politics to it, plus a rather extravagant archness as well as a genuine love of gardening. It was transparently obvious to the modern reader that Nichols was as gay as a tree full of monkeys on nitrous oxide, and his plans for the garden immediately called to mind Wade Rouse: "The first thing that gay men must do when they move to the country is rearrange the woods" (At least in the city someone would hear me scream). Some of his prose is purple, he would be embarrassed posthumously to see how much has become quaint and twee, and he's a class snob and a misogynist of the first order, but he clearly loved his garden, had as sense of humor about it and wrote beautifully about it.

* I do find myself wondering if Thirkell ever pilloried Nichols in her novels... there are a number of characters that might have been based on him.

Comments

[angorian.livejournal.com]

I've only read one Thirkell, Wild Strawberries, but I can immediately think of one character that certainly sounded like it might have been poking fun... the man who is obsessed with gardens, puffed up in his own consequence, has a jealous and easily bruised ego, is a mad gossipmonger, and basically mooches off various hostesses willing to put up with the way he invites himself and expects to be treated like royalty.