Review
An excellent story... strong imaginative power... wonderful sense of atmosphere. (Joanna Trollope) An old-fashioned novel in the best sense of the word. ("Chicago Tribune") A perfect novel for whiling away a leisurely weekend. ("The Sunday Times", London)
Joanna Trollope
'Excellent . . . strong imaginative power . . . wonderful sense of atmosphere'
Product Description
Consider the lily . . . waxen, exotic, doomed to bloom for its short, sweet season. Consider the rose . . . tenderly beautiful yet resilient, twining its way into the English garden . . .
Book Description
Winner of the 1994 Romantic Novelists’ Association Novel of the Year Award, Consider the Lily is a glorious fusion of love and gardening, of family life and coming to terms with loss. A haunting, passionate story played out between three people, it is also a poignant and beautiful novel of England between the wars that propels the reader into its own rich and nostalgic world. ‘An excellent story . . . strong imaginative power . . . wonderful sense of atmosphere’ Joanna Trollope ‘Wonderfully stylish and absolutely compulsive reading’ Penny Vincenzi ‘A gorgeously well-written tale: funny, sad, and sophisticated’ Independent ‘The literary equivalent of an English country garden’ Sunday Times
From the Author
Why I wrote this book
I wanted to explore a theme of personal loss, set against a backdrop of national loss i.e. the decades after the Great War. It is the story of a wife whose unhappiness drives her to take up gardening – and thus triggers a process of healing and new understanding which, in the end, brings her what she craves. It was also an opportunity to touch on the intriguing aspects of flowers and plants, particularly the ones that we prize greatly, the lily and the rose.
I wanted to explore a theme of personal loss, set against a backdrop of national loss i.e. the decades after the Great War. It is the story of a wife whose unhappiness drives her to take up gardening – and thus triggers a process of healing and new understanding which, in the end, brings her what she craves. It was also an opportunity to touch on the intriguing aspects of flowers and plants, particularly the ones that we prize greatly, the lily and the rose.
From the Back Cover
A miserable childhood had left Matty Verral introverted and awkward, lacking all the vivacious beauty that made her cousin, Daisy Chudleigh, such a social success. Both of them met Kit Dysart for the first time at his sister’s wedding; both of them fell in love. But only Matty, with her wealth, could give Kit his heart’s desire. Kit accepted her bargain and then, unable to stop himself, hurt her unbearably. In her pain, Matty turned to the garden that had been left to wither and die, and among its ghosts, began to build a life for herself …
'Consider the Lily' is a powerful and evocative tale of love and longing, truth and betrayal and won its author, Elizabeth Buchan, a major literary award.
Read by Lindsay Duncan
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.About the Author
Elizabeth Buchan is the author of Light of the Moon, Perfect Love, the prize-winning Consider the Lily, Against Her Nature, Secrets of the Heart, Revenge of the Middle-Aged Woman and The Good Wife . She lives in London with her husband and two children.
