An engaging and moving exploration of why we garden, from a woman who found solace in her own small patch of land
Lulah Ellender lives in Sussex, with her husband, four children and
assorted animals. Her first book Elisabeth's Lists was published by
Granta in 2018.
http://www.lulahellender.com
A deeply moving book that begins in shadow - with a
recently-bereaved mother under threat of eviction - and becomes a
light-seeking, hope-giving exploration of what it means to
cultivate a garden, a life, a legacy, at a time when so many of us
will forever rent, never own, the ground we hold dear.
Exquisitely-written and full of tender feeling... It is a book like
a secret garden, opening doors onto alternative ways of growing and
grounding a life
*Tanya Shadrick*
We all make our little utopias in our gardens, our attempts to
reclaim memories we never had, the futures we hope for implicit in
seasons of growth. They are perpetually renewed, here too, in Lulah
Ellender's elegant prose and her gathering of personal histories
and defiant rites, as the author proposes that optimism which is
the garden, our lives, our homes, our hopes, reborn again and
again
*Philip Hoare*
There are turns of phrase to die for in GROUNDING, and I felt like
I was given a guided tour through the gardens of others by Lulah's
curious eye. A much-needed book that offers a deep and moving
insight on motherhood, letting go, and how our gardens can help
us
*Alice Vincent, author of Rootbound*
I read GROUNDING as I moved through a period of deep uncertainty;
leaving my first garden to step towards a great unknown as a new
mother with my small family in tow. Ellender's words delivered such
solace; a quiet, soothing reminder that we make home through the
way we spend our days - each season we pass through leaving its
mark on us - allowing our story to unfurl. This story is one of
resilience, honesty, hope and healing. Ellender leads us by the
hand through all the gardens we both know and do not; reminding us
that to sow is a way to carve a life out of uncertainty; to make
room for the returning light, always
*Kerri ní Dochartaigh, author of The Thin Places*
An intimate exploration of what it means to be rooted in place and
of how a garden can become a safe haven in uncertain times
*Sue Stuart-Smith, author of The Well Gardened Mind*
As Lulah sows, deadheads and weeds she explores her feelings of
place and identity, fear and loss. A lyrical delve into how
gardening literally roots us to places and helps us look towards an
uncertain future with hope
*Kathy Clugston, presenter of BBC Radio 4's Gardeners' Question
Time*
An admirer of Ellender's debut Elisabeth's Lists, I also much
enjoyed this beguiling blend of memoir and cultural history, in
which she describes how she found deep solace in her Sussex garden,
even with the threat of eviction from their rented home hanging
over her family. While her first instinct was to stop cultivating
altogether, she soon went back to putting down roots, even though
she knew she might not see the shoots emerge. The result is an
absorbing meditation on the reasons that any of us gardens, which
had me longing for spring (and ordering a shedload of seeds)
*Bookseller*
Beautifully capture[s] just how important our own patch of ground
is to our sense of identity
*Daily Mail*
Wonderful ... Filled with such a love, such an ache, the child-like
need to be understood, the human urge to foster growth
*Toast*
Glorious... I've read a lot of gardening books... but I've read
very few as moving and literary as Grounding
*Observer*
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