Shoal Bay Press, Christchurch, 1997. Faded spine, with fade marks on front and back covers, otherwise good secondhand condition.

The trouble with most gardening books is that they are always commanding you to do something: prune, plant, hoe, sow, weed... They forget that there are times when gardeners simply need to throw themselves into the depths of a favourite chair and read something entertaining about their passion - to smile at the foibles, fancies, and fads of other gardeners, to be amused by their eccentricities, to share their tears and triumphs... and not to be overwhelmed with advice. Garden literature contains come of the most entertaining writing in the world and, like gardening itself, is an infinite source of comedy and semi-tragedy, furnishing scope for the full range of human emotions. The collecxtion of wit and wisdom offered in this volume is a somewhat kaleidoscopic affair; but no matter how the pieces are shaken or dipped into, the vibrant pattern that emerges reflects the humour, the colour and the vitality of the garden and its maker. We discover, in fact, that gardener have a finely developed penchant for laughing at themselves and are possessed of a magnificent sense of humus.This pot pourri of evergreen reading is enlivened by Anthony's own sharp wit and acute observations. It will entrance and entertain the perennial gardener in us all...