This biography delves into the character of the remarkable woman whose life story provided much of the material and inspiration for her fiction. I can entertain myself quite well for weeks together, hardly aware, except for the pervading peace, that I have been alone at all.

Here she wanders through the family gardens, terrified lest a relative emerge to find her trespassing.

I managed to read a bit of this book in my own garden the other day, when we finally had a spot of what might be termed summer.

This book is written in a loose diary format over the course of a year as Elizabeth plans her garden. Elizabeth retreats to the outdoors whenever possible, usually into her garden, where she finds beauty, peace and solace.Elizabeth's uniquely witty pen records each season in her beloved garden, where she escapes from the stifling routine of indoors: servants, meals, domestic routine, and the presence of her overbearing husband . Elizabeth and her friend Irais amuse themselves by casting serious shade on another guest of house, an utterly clueless English art student named Minora.

This enchanting semi-autobiographical novel delighted readers when it first appeared in 1898 and has never been out of print since. And her quick explanation of the dejected gardener who walked around with a spade in one hand and a revolver in the other. Still in the context of a witty, humorous, and charming book this brough me up short and dimmed my mood temporarily. Elizabeth and her German Garden, published anonymously in 1898, was a barely fictionalised account of Elizabeth’s life and the creation of her garden at the family home of Nassenheide in Pomerania, where Hugh Walpole and E. This attitude was found in two other characters I have come across in her oeuvre, Wemyss a despicable and evil sort in 'Vera' (1921) and Otto, just a male chauvinist pig like the Man of Wrath in 'The Caravaners' (1909).

There has been rain in the night, and the whole garden seems to be singing--not the untiring birds only, but the vigorous plants, the happy grass and trees, the lilac bushes--oh, those lilac bushes! Non mi piace il Dovere: ogni cosa come minimo sgradevole si può stare sicuri che è sempre il proprio dovere.