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The Accidental Garden

The Accidental Garden

Gardens, Wilderness, and the Space In Between

Richard Mabey

$17.95
$17.95
Available as E-Book Biography & Memoir British & Irish Literature Essays & Criticism Gardening
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What is a garden? Must it be an arena for the display of human mastery or might it be something less determined, more generous, a handshake with nature rather than a clenched fist? These are questions that Richard Mabey, arguably England’s greatest nature writer, asks and considers in his new book, part memoir, part treatise.

From the pressing surrounds of the inventive, half-wild garden that Mabey, an instinctive rewilder, and his partner Polly, a determined grower, have shared for two decades, Mabey weighs past hopes and visions against the environmental emergency of the present. In beeches and bush crickets he sees proof of adaptation and survival; in commons and meadows he finds natural processes at work yet.

A wise and witty stylist, under no illusions but attuned to delight, Mabey locates in his small patch of planet a place to test assumptions, to inhabit other species’ sensoriums, to observe how myriad species establish common ground. “Be interpreters, scribes, witnesses, neighbors,” urges Mabey, “the welcomers at the gate.” 

Additional Book Information

Series: New York Review Books
ISBN: 9781681379906
Pages: 176
Publication Date:

Praise

A calming reflection on the enduring resilience of nature . . . a discursive, philosophical memoir about everything from the human desire to shape nature to what Mabey calls the ambiguous experience of gardening in the midst of an environmental emergency.
—Financial Times

Delightful . . . The Accidental Garden provides an overview of Mabey's evolved thinking over a lifetime . . . Richard Mabey is the doyen of UK nature writing. —New Statesman

Inspirational . . . meditative . . . an advocate for a new non-domineering understanding of the relationship between human beings and the rest of the natural world.
—The Spectator

This is part memoir, part naturescape and part gardening book. . . . There is also something much rarer in this book: wisdom. What a treat.
—The Times (UK)

A crusade in defence of a natural world under threat . . . Mabey's powers of nature observation, and his gift for translating them into words has made [his work] both celebrated and timeless.
—The Sunday Telegraph

A lovely companion to Olivia Laing's The Garden Against Time, The Accidental Garden sees nature writer Richard Mabey on fine form. . . . The light touch in his writing and his gardening allows for a delight in the everyday wonder of nature.
—The Observer

Both instructive and exciting, often ecstatic . . . Mabey is a great, pioneering nature writer. This slim volume, packed with knowledge, insight and 'taste', is a beacon even as Mabey acknowledges that the 'minor victories' on his two acres cannot make up for the worldwide loss of biodiversity.
—The Irish Times

Part memoir, part journal, part treatise . . . this slim book captures it all. A thoughtful, lingering read.
—Geographical

These are wide-ranging debates that cover the gender-fluid nature of plants, decolonisation, migration, native/nonnative, reparations for nature through the lens of the wood, the lawn, the pond and the flowerbed. I felt like I'd spent a great afternoon, lying in the dappled shade of a garden tree, listening to Mabey muse on a life with plants.
—Gardens Illustrated

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