Publisher: Granta (www.granta.com)
Buy: £8.99 Amazon (currently)
Let’s start with what this book is not. It’s not a book about roses. It’s not a biography of George Orwell. It’s not an instructional manual. Indeed, I find it somewhat easier to note what it’s not, than to pin down what it is! Not a great start to a book review so I’ll nail my judgemental colours to the mast and state from the outset that I loved the book.
It’s a well-worn cliché … every book is a journey … and I’m OK with that, and this journey was totally unexpected. The book is beautifully written, moving, challenging, and ultimately rewarding. It begins with the sentence “In the spring of 1936, a writer planted roses.” The writer was George Orwell, and from that first sentence we are escorted across millennia, across continents, into working class households and the estates of the landed gentry, around vast rose factories and into cottage gardens. We explore connections between 18th century portrait painters and 20th century writers, engage in debates about the nature of truth, beauty, and the reality of lived experience.
Try and imagine following this as a map through the book:
Orwell … slavery …Naziism … coal-mining … the carboniferous era … revolution … bread & roses … Stalin … lemon trees … the Enclosure Act … gentility … Ralph Lauren … The River Orwell.
Is the book an exploration of a writer’s life and evolving political positioning through the medium of roses, or an exploration of roses alongside a consideration of Orwell’s evolving political thinking? It’s feels unfair to precis this book in such a simplified way, but if pushed, I would say the former rather than the latter. It doesn’t sound like a light read, does it? But Solnit has a way of writing that draws you in, engages you at both an intellectual level and an emotional level, deftly weaving the facts into a tapestry that unfolds in a measured way.
Within the book there are many turns of phrase that left me smiling (in an envious way) –
“Flowers are powerful, and all humans lead lives intertwined with them, whether we notice or not” p17
“A garden is what you want (and can manage and afford), and what you want is who you are, and who you are is always a political and cultural question.” p149
“Paradise is a walled garden, defined in part by what it shut out” (sic) p173
“Scent is a kind of voice, a way in which flowers speak” p213
The book is punctuated with, (what were for me), surprising “reveals” about Eric Blair (Orwell). His connections to the artist Joshua Reynolds, his love of gardening in general, and specifically, vegetable gardening, and it is clear that the author has gone one step further than mere due diligence when it comes to the underpinning research. Without presenting a “look at how much I’ve read” style, she uses her breadth of knowledge in a focused, gentle, and contemplative way. There was an unintended prescience in much of the writing. In exploring ancient and more recent historical events (Stalin, totalitarianism, …), there were clear parallels in relation to current global issues (climate change, anti-democracy, Trumpian thought).
It would be easy to paint a somewhat “bleak” picture of a man whose name is simultaneously associated with a dystopian view of past, present, and future worlds. However, towards the end of the book, Solnit gently challenges the notion of “Orwellian” as being in and of itself a pejorative term. This feels fair … and I’m comfortable with that.
Who might enjoy this read?
My sense is that those who are passionate about gardening, who can appreciate a well written, factual exploration of a well-known writer, and who have a leaning to political exploration, will really enjoy the book (as I did).
I will leave you with one of my favourite captures from the book. It doesn’t come from Solnit herself but from her friend Joe Lamb (tree surgeon & poet). In a discussion of the carboniferous era, and within that, photosynthesis, he states that:
“One way of looking at trees is that they are captured light”.
… Beautiful.