Machiavelli's Lawn: The Great Writers' Garden Companion

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Description

Twelve great authors offer their top tips on gardening, from Sylvia Plath's struggles with autumn bulbs, to JD Salinger's helpful hints on growing from seed. In Cormac McCarthy's hands a landowner's trip to the potting shed becomes a right of passage from which he will return transformed. Zola's striking miner finds life on the allotment more brutal and short than anything he imagined at the coal face. Carver's antihero plants up a neglected hanging basket in a doomed attempt to repair his relationship with his wife. And Wodehouse's hero, anticipating a visit from his aunt, realises that the right choice of houseplant may well save him from the ignominy of marriage.

Inspired, botanically-accurate, and utterly hilarious, Machiavelli's Lawn will appeal to green-fingered book lovers everywhere.

Reviews

If you feel your plot or small holding would benefit from Niccol Machiavelli on The Art of Mowing, Isabelle Allende on Dividing Bamboo or mile Zola on Weedding by Hand then Machiavelli's Lawn is the book for you -- Lindsay Duguid * Times Literary Supplement *
Mark Crick's new parodies continues his winning line in household hints from literary bigwigs -- Rosemary Goring * Herald *
Crick's project is underpinned by a solid knowledge and appreciation of the writers he parodies, as well as of the urbane tasks in which he engages them ... erudite and enjoyable prose, no less rewarding for its horticultural accuracy ... Machiavelli's Lawn is a little ge(r)m of postmodern humour -- Thea Lenarduzzi * Times Literary Supplement *
Inspired, botanically accurate and utterly hilarious * Countryside *

Author Bio

Mark Crick is a photographer and the author of Kafka's Soup and Sartre's Sink. He lives in London.