LIFE IN THE GARDEN

I have no idea what Penelope Lively sounds like, but as far as I'm concerned, narrator Helen Lloyd channels the 84-year-old esteemed author perfectly. Her mellow, educated tone is just right for the Booker Prize-winning Lively's newest book, which combines memoir with gardening commentary. Lively has gardened since she was growing up in Egypt, and though she's now limited to a small London yard, she has formed opinions on everything horticultural: style, order, control, the admirable willfulness of plants, and why we keep planting our little plot. It's all here, as well as her thoughts on the gardens of the literary and the famous, including Virginia Woolf's inexplicable love of "nasty yellow bulbous spotty" calceolaria. These are audio essays for gardening enthusiasts to savor. A.C.S. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine [Published: JULY 2018]