Tuesday, August 4, 2009

If you like HGTV, you'll love...

If like me, you love houses and gardens, I know of an author you would enjoy reading. His (yes, his!) name is Beverley Nichols, he was English, and he lived from 1898 to 1983. One of my favorite quotes comes from his book Merry Hall. He is describing house-hunting in England after the end of WWII, and how, no matter what is wrong with the place, real estate agents rhapsodize about mature oak trees on the property:

"Did it face North, was it Edwardian Gothic, was there a lunatic asylum over the wall, and would a sensitive spaniel have howled itself to death at the mere sight of it on a rainy night? All quite correct. But kindly remember, there was a Wealth of Old Oak. Or, as I began to think of it, a W. of O.O."

Merry Hall tells about the house he finally finds and how he refurbishes it and its garden with the help of (or inspite of!) local characters and neighbors.

Other titles by Beverley Nichols include:

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