The Morville Hours

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‘The Morville Hours is the most beautiful book I have read in years’ – Nigel Slater

‘A truly remarkable book that is both intimate and universal. We are left with a renewed sense of what it is to be human’ – Daily Telegraph

‘This is gardening writing at its best. Swift’s prose brings the garden alive in all its details, scents and meaning … Evocative, heartfelt and magical’ – Guardian
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In 1988 Katherine Swift arrived at the Dower House at Morville to create a garden of her own. This beautifully written, utterly absorbing book is the history of the many people who have lived in the same Shropshire house, tending the same soil, passing down stories over the generations.

Spanning thousands of years, The Morville Hours takes the form of a medieval Book of Hours. It is a meditative journey through the seasons, but also a journey of self-exploration. It is a book about finding one’s place in the world and putting down roots.

Author Biography

Katherine Swift lives at The Dower House, Morville Hall in Shropshire. She worked as a rare book librarian in Oxford and Dublin before becoming a full-time gardener and writer in 1988. She was for four years gardening columnist of The Times, and has written widely in the gardening press, including an acclaimed series on the gardens and landscapes of Orkney for Hortus. She is the author of Preserving Our Printed Heritage: Long Room Project at Trinity College Dublin with Anthony Cains and Pergolas, Arbours and Arches: Their History and How to Make Them with Paul Edwards and Jessica Smith. The Morville Hours is her third book.