The Morville Hours by Katherine Swift

This is a good time to take a break from practical gardening books and read something really inspiring. I’m currently reading The Morville Hours by Katherine Swift  and cannot recommend it highly enough.  It is a jewel of a book that takes its inspiration from the medieval Book of Hours and tells the story of how Katherine made a garden in a place that had been inhabited and gardened since medieval times. Using historical plants she laid out a series of gardens each reflecting one particular period of the garden’s history.  But this is much more than an academic exercise, it is the tale of one woman’s passion for her garden and the daily struggles to realise her dream.