I just loved everything about this book. The narrative is captivating with a slight otherworldly feel. I feel I know every inch of the garden and surrounding countryside and also the main characters. My only complaint is that it isn't longer, I do hope there will be a sequel.

Yes, this book about a garden and its restoration at the hands of a woman smarting from the breakdown of a relationship and the death of her Father. But, it is so much more than that as it explores the relationship between two sisters, the place of an immigrant in a small village community and how love and friendship can have great restorative powers. I love Sally Vickers’ writing and her last book, Grandmothers was a triumph. If anything, The Gardener is even better, with its beautiful writing, connection with nature, and exploration of what makes us all human - that love, friendship, nurturing and growing can all heal and make us complete. Many thanks to NetGalley and to the publisher for my review copy.

This book reminds me of the writing of Rosamunde Piltcher and Sibil Marshall. The descriptions of the rambling old house and gardens are evocative of another time. The relationships within the novel are believable. But the ending? I may need to read it again to see what I missed because I didn't understand the ending at all. Maybe it plays on the other worldly aspects of the book. The writing is beautiful and I very much enjoyed it for that. Many thanks to the publishers for sending me a copy to review.

A lovely, gentle read with beautifully descriptive passages that made me want to go and find old, scented roses, honeysuckle and lilac so that I could experience the enchantment that Hassie describes. The scratchy relationship between Hassie and her sister Margot is gradually healed as the seasons pass and their old house and neglected garden are brought back to their former glory. Murat, the refugee who helps with the renovations has a major part in the story without featuring much at all in the narrative which touches on the redemptive powers of pagan rituals, Christian saints and nature. The cast of characters includes Robert, Hassie's married lover who breaks her heart, her elderly and acerbic neighbour Phyllis, a vicar without a faith and a very unappealing child but the real story is about nature and time's healing power.

I like reading about far-flung places and past centuries but this, set in the modern day just an hour away from where I live, provides a different kind of enjoyment. I could visit the places mentioned and may well do so. The narrator, Hass, is easy to like. She has talent but doesn’t seem to have made the most of it. Shattered by a broken love affair and mourning her father, she is wondering how good an idea it was to go along with her sister Margot’s plan to buy a house in the country together. In contrast to the other book by Sally Vickers I’ve read, Miss Garnet’s Angel, The Gardener is decidedly un-urban, a love letter to the countryside. Hass makes an effort to get to know people in the nearby village and throws herself into reviving the large garden that surrounds the house. I don’t have a sister but the relationship between Hass and Margot strikes me as realistic; inconsistent and changing but strong in its shared history. I thought for a long while that the title had missed the mark; now I see how appropriate it is: referring not to one gardener, but several.