About this item
Leaving London to grow food for the war effort, Gwen discovers a mysterious lost garden and the story of a love that becomes her own. This word-perfect, heartbreaking novel is set in early 1941 in Britain when the war seems endless and, perhaps, hopeless. London is on fire from the Blitz, and a young woman gardener named Gwen Davis flees from the burning city for the Devon countryside. She has volunteered for the Land Army, and is to be in charge of a group of young girls who will be trained to plant food crops on an old country estate where the gardens have fallen into ruin. Also on the estate, waiting to be posted, is a regiment of Canadian soldiers. For three months, the young women and men will form attachments, living in a temporary rural escape.
About the Author
Helen Humphreys is the author of five books of poetry, eleven novels, and three works of non-fiction. She was born in Kingston-on-Thames, England, and now lives in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. Her first novel, (1997) , won the 1998 City of Toronto Book Award and was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. Her second novel, (2000) , won the 2000 Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize, was nominated for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize, and was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. Her third novel, (2002) , was a 2003 Canada Reads selection, a national bestseller, and was also a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. (2004) won the 2005 Lambda Prize for fiction, has been optioned for film, and was produced as a stage play at CanStage in Toronto in the fall of 2008. (2008) was a #1 national bestseller, was chosen as one of the top 100 books of the year by the Globe & Mail, and was chosen one of the top ten books of the year by both the Ottawa Citizen and NOW Magazine. Humphreys's work of creative non-fiction, (2007) , was a #1 national bestseller. Her collections of poetry include (1990) ; and, (1995) . Her latest collection, (1999) , won the 2000 Canadian Authors Association Award for Poetry. Helen Humphreys's fiction is published in Canada by HarperCollins, and in the U.S. by W.W. Norton. was published by McClelland & Stewart in Canada, and by Bantam in the U.S. Her work has been translated into many languages.
