Katherine Swift

The Morville Hours

The Morville Hours won widespread praise from critics and readers alike for the crisp beauty of Katherine Swift's prose as she described the birth and development of her garden at the Dower House at Morville in Shropshire. Now Swift, one of the most-admired gardening writers of her generation, returns to describe a year in the life of the garden in The Morville Year. From the new beginnings and green shoots of March as the weather teeters back and forth between Winter and Spring as if trying to make up its mind, through the intoxicating simple pleasures of the first smell of freshly-mown grass and May flower festivals, all the way through the year in her wonderful garden, Swift takes the reader on a journey that will appeal to gardeners and non-gardeners alike. Every bit as beautifully produced as The Morville Hours, the book will include chapter-opening illustrations by Dawn Burford and four inserts of colour photography (one for each season) by Jane Sebire to show the garden in all its splendour. Those who loved The Morville Hours will again fall under Katherine's spell while those who haven't yet been taken to Morville will delight in discovering it for the first time.

The Morville Year

A sequel to The Morville Hours traces a year in the life of her garden at the Dower House in Shropshire, describing such evocative elements as the green shoots of renewing plants in March, the intoxicating smells of freshly mown grass and the May flower festivals, in an account complemented by chapter-opening illustrations and four inserts of color photographs.

The Story of a Garden

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.

Katherine Swift

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