Down the Garden Path by Beverley Nichols ~ 1932. This edition: Doubleday, 1932. Decorations by Rex Whistler. Hardcover. 303 pages.
It’s rather nasty outside today, with a too-early cold snap blowing in, nipping the last flowers with frost, and whisking snowflakes around our chilly ears, so I have used this hopefully temporary weather event as an excuse to step away from my outdoor occupations and spend a lazy Sunday puttering about in the house.
I’ve been tracking down all of the various books I read this summer during my non-posting spell, with the idea of zipping off some reviews and helping my Century of Books project along. I bailed out on it last year; I have the idea that successfully completing it this year will be grand for my sometimes troubled morale.
Of course it is taking much longer than I thought to get my book thoughts into writing – I find myself re-reading all the best bits and flipping through things to reacquaint myself with what it was exactly that I wanted to highlight.
Bear with me over the next few weeks, as I hope to throw a number of these catch-up posts up at random as I steal the time to work them out.
Starting right here, with this happy offering from early on in Beverley Nichols’ four decade stint as a documentarian of the joys and tribulations of domestic and garden life in the four decades of the 1930s through the 1960s.
The only thing better than Beverley Nichols’ more than slightly pithy, sometimes precious prose in this delicious account of moving to a neglected country cottage and re-establishing a seriously ambitious garden is the inclusion of a whole slew of delightful Rex Whistler illustrations.
Anyone who is already familiar with Beverley Nichol’s style will know that it doesn’t matter what he writes about; he is readable in any key. He definitely comes across as thinking quite highly of his own intelligence, wit and charm, but just when you think he’s tooting his own horn a bit too loudly he throws in some humbling episode and undertakes to poke fun at himself, and all is forgiven.
In a nutshell, Beverley Nichols is inspired by memories of an idyllic visit to an acquaintance’s country cottage and garden. Seeing notice of this person’s obituary, our writer impulsively sends of an offer-to-purchase the cottage from the owner’s heirs; it is immediately accepted, and Nichols finds himself possessed not of the rose-smothered cottage of that summer day, but a neglected and dreary weed-infested mess. How he brings it back to beauty with the help of a number of paid and voluntary helpers and advisors makes up the framework of the tale, with numerous departures into character portraits of neighbours and visitors, and vivid descriptions of his own moods throughout.
It’s not all la-di-da and nice-nice-nice; there’s a fair bit of snark in Beverley Nichols’ nature, and it comes through loud and clear here, but it’s a funny sort of bitchiness, balanced by abundant sweet-natured enthusiasms.
Is this essentially a book for gardeners? No! Not at all, though if one is of that particular persuasion, one will find much to relate to in the descriptions of just how Mr Nichols and his various garden helpers went about the cultivation of their plot.
For more detail, I refer you to a post by Heavenali from earlier in 2018.
My rating: 8.5/10 for the prose, 10/10 for the pictures. Good stuff.
A modest country estate – Beverley Nichols’ cottage and grounds, circa 1932.
Leaves & Pages 
I read a few of his many years ago and can’t recall if one of them was this. But I loved the sense of being in an imperfect but lovely place where the dresses of young debs were stained by the pollen of the regal lilies our author kept presenting them with and how everything smelled so sweet in the evening.
In amongst all of the clever, catty accounts of his neighbours’ goings-on and such, one gets a genuine sense of a person who was deeply in love with plants; his garden passages are evocative and beautifully observed.
The Nichols/Whistler pairing is perfect, isn’t it? I certainly prefer his later trilogy, but the Whistlers here add lots of points.
Yes, a perfect pairing! The Whistler illustrations are absolutely spot on, and often quite amusing as well as being highly decorative. I love it so much when writing and artwork click so well; it’s rather a lost art, isn’t it, what with budget issues nowadays in the publishing world. So often in regards to book illustration its its early to mid 20th century Golden Age, one sees references to artists working for months – sometimes years! – on the illustrations for particular books.
Lovely review. I still have three other BN books I need to get to. I did love Beverley’s snark though. 😊
I do adore Beverley (as I’ve often made clear) and I love the way you point out that despite his snark (which is wonderful) he does have a soft side. And you’re right about the illustrations – just marvellous. You can never have enough Beverley! 🙂
I really liked this series, and I was really pleased when I found a copy of his The Star Spangled Manner in a shop in Penrith last week.
I have a copy of Star Spangled Manner, but it’s been years since I read it. I do remember being rather taken aback by the author’s cheekiness, and laughing out loud here and there. I must see if I can find it on the over-crowded shelves.
[…] Moving to the country: Down the Garden Path by Beverley Nichols – Nichols’ much-loved 1931 gardening classic is discussed at Leaves & Pages. Apparently, there’s a “fair bit of snark” to be found in this memoir, “but it’s a funny sort of bitchiness”. […]