Merry Hall (Beverley Nichols Trilogy)

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The opening *is* gorgeous, and if you don’t like that, you definitely aren’t going to like Beverley’s books! I imagine BN was a bit of a nightmare to be around, but so entertaining to read him from this distance of decades.

Women who wear mink coats are only one degree better than the fiendish Frau Koch, who made lampshades out of the skins of the Nazis’ victims. He pretends to direct the same wit against himself, but tends to be kinder toward himself than toward others. Whilst Nichol's memoirs are rooted in reality, he always brings to them a sense of the absurd, the eccentric and the fantastical, ensuring that they are as readable as they are informative.House and garden are in need of much restoration, but this is exactly what he wanted – and he throws himself into the project with gusto and not a little obsession. The chapter "Flowers and the Woman" Nichols tells the story of how he gets the idea to recreate a favorite painting of flowers in a Grecian urn (by Joseph Nigg) in real life, and finds that he is missing 3 of the flowers he needs to complete it. The beginning was great, lots of anecdotes about funny English countryside neighbors and pet cats and stubborn old housekeepers.

Most of the book tells the tale of restoring the garden with the help of the wonderful old gardener, Oldfield, who had dedicated all his life to the kitchen garden and greenhouses and grew the most wonderful vegetables. All round the property there were huge elms, which from today’s perspective, now that these majestic trees have disappeared, sound wonderful. First in a trilogy, "Merry Hall" is the account of the restoration of a house and garden in post-war England.

Beverley Nichols' garden books are part PG Wodehouse and part James Barrie - full of hilarious Jeeves-like characters and events, with moments of Peter Pan magic. Change country: -Select- Albania Andorra Anguilla Antigua and Barbuda Argentina Armenia Aruba Australia Austria Azerbaijan Republic Bahamas Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belarus Belgium Belize Bermuda Bhutan Bolivia Bosnia and Herzegovina Brazil British Virgin Islands Brunei Darussalam Bulgaria Cambodia Canada Cayman Islands Chile China Colombia Costa Rica Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark Dominica Dominican Republic Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Estonia Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas) Finland France French Guiana Georgia Germany Gibraltar Greece Greenland Grenada Guadeloupe Guatemala Guernsey Guyana Haiti Honduras Hong Kong Hungary Iceland India Indonesia Iraq Ireland Israel Italy Jamaica Japan Jersey Jordan Kazakhstan Kuwait Kyrgyzstan Laos Latvia Lebanon Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Macau Macedonia Malaysia Maldives Malta Martinique Mexico Moldova Monaco Mongolia Montenegro Montserrat Nepal Netherlands Netherlands Antilles New Zealand Nicaragua Norway Oman Pakistan Panama Paraguay Peru Philippines Poland Portugal Puerto Rico Qatar Republic of Croatia Reunion Romania Saint Kitts-Nevis Saint Lucia Saint Pierre and Miquelon Saint Vincent and the Grenadines San Marino Saudi Arabia Serbia Singapore Slovakia Slovenia South Africa South Korea Spain Sri Lanka Suriname Sweden Switzerland Taiwan Tajikistan Thailand Trinidad and Tobago Turkey Turkmenistan Turks and Caicos Islands Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom United States Uruguay Uzbekistan Vatican City State Venezuela Vietnam Virgin Islands (U. During 1966, whilst employed in the Savoy Hotel, I found him walking behind me, like a ship in full sail, in the company of a couple of men friends.

Written in the time period shortly after WWII, Merry Hall chronicles the purchase of an 18th century red-bricked house and focuses on renovations of the adjoining gardens.His verbal sparring with several neighbors is also funny, as long as one doesn't read too much into his words. After all, sometimes it’s the first volumes in sets that are hardest to find, because so many people think they are going to read the series but then don’t follow through. Nichols has strong opinions on everything from politics to gardening and isn’t afraid to state them, which I love, whether it’s about roses or other gardeners (he says of Vita Sackville-West, “I am glad to learn that there is at least one great gardener who agrees with me – the poet Vita Sackville-West, who has less nonsense in her little finger than most women in their whole bodies, if you know what I mean” – he is not tolerant of silly women…) He also seems incredibly knowledgeable about plants and trees, and quite determined to track down what he actually wants – which is a useful trait to have when dealing with Miss Emily and Our Rose, who drive him to distraction (but whom he secretly seems to enjoy sparring with). He’s obviously an obsessive gardener and when he stumbles across the house of the title he’s instantly smitten, despite the fact that there is an incredible amount of work which needs doing on both house and garden. But as Beverley told his sceptical friend who viewed the house with him: ‘ Merely because one has lots of rooms one needn’t use them’.