I couldn't find it but I asked my 24/7 librarian service to come up with the title: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=9325&tag=kickrunners-20&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2F3000-Mile-Garden-Exchange-Letters-Gardening%2Fdp%2F0670867144%2Fref%3Dpd_bbs_sr_1%3Fie%3DUTF8%26s%3Dbooks%26qid%3D1206479144%26sr%3D8-1" target="_blank">3000 Mile Garden</a>.<br><br>
But it's non-fiction. <img alt="sad.gif" src="http://files.kickrunners.com/smilies/sad.gif">

 

Larry's Party?<br><br>
From Library Journal<br>
Pulitzer Prize winner Shields (The Stone Diaries, Viking, 1994) follows 20 years of Larry Weller's life, culminating in an unforgettable party. Larry goes from work as an ordinary man, a floral designer, to become a noted architect of garden mazes. Like the mazes he designs, his life becomes increasingly complex?a symbol of what it is like to be a Caucasian male in the late 20th century. His interactions with his parents, his sister, the two women who (consecutively) marry and divorce him, and his son are paralleled by the additional textures and colors he builds into the hedges he designs. The chapters gradually reveal the threads of the protagonist's identity. This well-written, satisfying novel is replete with telling metaphors, memorable phrases, and gentle satire. Highly recommended for public and academic libraries.

 

Mysteries written by Ann Ripley: <a href="http://www.mysterypartners.com/gardenplots/mysteries/ripley.html" target="_blank">http://www.mysterypartners.com/garde...es/ripley.html</a>

 

Edited<br><br>
Meh...should've read the whole thread first!

 

<br>
\ooooh, a cliffhanger! <img alt="smile.gif" src="http://files.kickrunners.com/smilies/smile.gif"><br><br>
Also, Grim, thanks for the second suggestion as well.

 

Yes, but I can't think of what it's called...I'll go upstairs shortly and grab it and let you know.

 

<br>
Also 'Tom's Midnight Garden'

 

You know, I just put that on my list before I saw your post. I have never read it (I haven't read a lot of english language children's books) but now I'm gonna! It also triggered a list of 'english children's classics'. But that's a post for another day!

 

I did read that (and enjoyed it) though it reminds me I haven't read Botany of Desire yet. And Diablita and Diane, thanks for Barbara Kingsolver tip. I only tried to read one of her fiction books once and couldn't get into it, but loved Animal, Vegetable Miracle.

 

The Secret Garden?

 

I'll second Prodigal Summer.<br><br>
And it's not fiction, but Michael Pollan's first book of essays is called Second Nature, and I can't imagine the gardener who wouldn't love it.

 

Well it's not quite a "gardening" book, but growing gardens is a big part of the book's premise:<br>
"Prodigal Summer" by Barbara Kingsolver<br><br>
on the plus side, it's a great read and deals with some interesting topics.

 

The other Dalziel and Pascoe books aren't to do with gardening - just the one I mentioned.<br><br>
This is a TV series in the UK, but unfortunately I don't think it originally sprang from novels:<br><br><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosemary_and_thyme" target="_blank">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosemary_and_thyme</a>

 

That was very accomodating of her! <img alt="smile.gif" src="http://files.kickrunners.com/smilies/smile.gif"><br>
I'll let you know how I like them. I love discovering a new series I haven't ready anything of, so I hope I like them!

 

Grim, I'll look into these as well. Apparently gardening = english mysteries! <img alt="biggrin.gif" src="http://files.kickrunners.com/smilies/biggrin.gif">

 

Reginald Hill's <i>Dalziel and Pascoe</i> detective novels are excellent, and there's one called <i>Deadheads</i>. Here are a couple of synopses from Amazon:<br><br><i>An English rose garden on a summer's day. A small boy watches with interest as his great-aunt cuts the deadheads off the rosebushes with a sharp knife. What could be more peaceful, more harmless? Young Patrick grows up to be a calm, pleasant man, with a good job, a wife and two children, and the best rose garden for miles around. When somebody tells the police that Patrick Aldermann is killing people, Chief Superintendent Dalziel thinks it's probably all nonsense. But Inspector<br>
Pascoe is not so sure . . . --This text refers to the Paperback edition.<br><br>
Synopsis<br>
'Reginald Hill stands head and shoulders above any other writer of homebred crime fiction' Tom Hiney, Observer Life is a bed of roses for Patrick Aldermann when Great Aunt Florence collapses into her Madam Louis Laperrieres and he inherits Rosemont House with its splendid gardens. But when his boss, 'Dandy' Dick Elgood, suggests to Peter Pascoe that Aldermann is a murderer -- then retracts the accusation -- the inspector is left with a thorny problem. By then Police Cadet Singh, Mid-Yorkshire's first Asian copper, had dug up some very interesting information about Patrick's elegant wife Daphne. Superintendent Dalziel, meanwhile, is atttempting to relive the days of Empire with Singh as his tea-wallah.</i>

 

Nice and the Cote d'azur do not appeal to me at all, but I think I wouldn't mind living in the area around Aix (based on what I've read, which admittedly, does not give you the whole picture!). Well, aside from the having to speak french bit, but even that I'm sure would be fine after a few weeks.

 

I don't that area. I've worked in Martigues for about a year and have been to Marseilles several times. I lived in Nice for about 2 years.<br><br>
Good for a vacation, but I didn't like living there!

 

Read all of them. Favourites are the first I ever read (Monk's Hood) which is the third in the series. Virgin in the Ice, which is 6th I believe, Holy Thief, which is on towards the end of the series, and one I can't remember the title of, but is somewhere near #12. Oh yeah and the Leper of St. Giles.<br><br>
They are MUCH better than the TV mini-series, and are a great read. Truly.<br><br>
And she had the grace to finish the last book before dying.

 

I went to a garden party...<br><br>
Even "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" doesn't have much gardening in it (as far as I know).

 

I looked him up on Wikipedia and put the first 2 in the series on hold at my public library. They sound interesting (though not that garden-focused, but I like mysteries too). Thanks for the suggestion!

 

Noooo, I don't want THAT! <img alt="sad2.gif" src="http://files.kickrunners.com/smilies/sad2.gif"><br><br>
We're renting a house 30 km northwest of Aix-en-Provence, near the village of Lambesc. I have never been to Provence, I'm looking forward to it!

 

Where in Provence are you going? There are areas where English and Dutch are more spoken than French...

 

Wasn't Brother Cadfael a gardener monk?

 

Mmm, this thread is not working out the way I had hoped...<br><img alt="smile.gif" src="http://files.kickrunners.com/smilies/smile.gif">