Beginning with Late Winter, Charlotte takes the reader through her gardening year, via Wasting Money Wisely (the lure of the seed packet), What To Do When You Can't Grow Lemons (grow lemon verbena; lemon balm is quite revolting.; why does no one admit to this?), Thirty-Three Alternatives to Lettuce (the greatest salads don't need bacon or croutons), The Beauty of Squashes (much of gardening is a lie, and the biggest lie of all involves courgettes), Tree Envy (dreams of owning a plum tree), and Fantasy (gardening is an unfulfilled fantasy, never disappointing, always possible a source of perfect, fruitful happiness). In reality, her garden may look like a nasty drunk old man. Arguably, it's the most expensive, time consuming, undecorative and self-indulgent way to grow a salad ever invented, but when tired or sad or cross it never fails to delight.

Author Biography

Charlotte Mendelson's first novel, Love in Idleness, was published in 2001. Her second, Daughters of Jerusalem (2003) won the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize and the Somerset Maugham Award. Her third, When We Were Bad (2007), was shortlisted for the Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction. Almost English, her fourth, was long-listed for the Man Booker Prize.