Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience.

In her wonderful book The Ghost in the Garden: in Search of Darwin’s Lost Garden,
author Jude Piesse observes that gardens have the unique distinction of being created by people as much as they are by nature. And yet, serving as a contact language between natural forces and the works that can fill a human life, gardens are also capable of taking on significance as something much more than themselves—a lesson that was emanated from Susannah Darwin to her six children, most notable among them, perhaps, one son named Charles.

But to the degree that a garden can be transfigured into the mythos, it can also become the
metaphor that keeps Piesse’s many narratives well-nourished. In the work, which is expertly
dialectical despite its coy appearance otherwise, the author spares no detail of the humdrum labor undertaken in its writing. She unearths archival documents down to the very bone, venturing from location to location and often back again so that no one place looks the same way twice. At one turn, the reader learns about a showman steeplejack’s obituary, only to find at another how his tragic death has taken on shape in the birthplace of Charles Darwin. Tedium becomes an origin for richly recreated historical moments, and the result is a work that’s as inseparable from its author’s imagination as it is from each word in the sources from which it was drawn. Like Rilke’s The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge, The Ghost in the Garden reads as a ghost story about a ghost story, a constant yearning after its subject—which, it so happens, is also quite illusory.

In a similar way, the cut and dry theory of evolution so often taught at childhood is
only a glimpse into the broader evolutionary framework as it’s described by Darwin himself.
Rather than charting a path through history for a favored evolutionary few, the pages of the
Origin invites us instead to hunker down into what Piesse calls “the range of ‘the close-up’.” Vast and dispersive though its implications may be, Darwin’s method nonetheless begins from an orientation toward nature’s varied forms, in the multitude of ways by which they can be known and experienced. To use one of the author’s favorite metaphors, how these properties will “take wing”—or how they will not—is ultimately the very mystery of natural selection. And while much of the book’s parallel function as a memoir stems from the author’s uncertainty about the future of her work, its explorative nature invites her to discover herself from often competing perspectives: at once she is a writer, a mother, a gardener, and an employee. Just as the true strength of Darwinian thought lies in its ability to be reimagined, so too does Piesse find perseverance in the collapse of singular notions of identity.

Through seven chapters that wind inward on their respective voyage, the reader is
taken on the journey of looking at the historical man Darwin. On the one hand, he is constructed as a shadow of the interplay between historical forces: the political economy that conditions his reality; the labor of the workers who sustained his gardens while themselves remaining unseen; and, perhaps most importantly, his mother and sisters, without whose intelligence and attention he may never have been so carefully pruned. But neither does Ghost detract from Darwin himself, viewed as much through the voice in his books as by the powers that shaped him. The man Piesse portrays becomes an endlessly fascinating literary character, with quirks the reader comes to know intimately and immediately. Alongside his sensitive attunement to the emotions of children are his serenades of earthworms with bassoons and whistles. He is a man who stands mystified before the world, interrogating it so that it might reveal its secret, while also knowing it could never be had quite so easily.

The Ghost in the Garden shares the same reverent curiosity that it celebrates in those it
examines. And while the reader never quite stumbles onto the book they may have thought they had opened, they are reminded immediately, time and time again, that it is the surprises as well as the expectations which create the contents of a life.

Review by Lake Markham

I found this to be a refreshing and illuminating memoir, combining the fascinating life of Charles Darwin and his family alongside that of the author who finds herself living nearby to his childhood garden at The Mount in Shrewsbury. She'd often walk past the property and the land that is now run partly by The Shropshire Wildlife Trust and she becomes intrigued by the impact that the garden may have had on his outlook and interest into the natural world that he took on to bigger things as he grew up!

It really brings to life the upbringing that Charles had - the dynamics of his family and the areas they lived in - and used letters and diaries from the family so well to bring them to life, so to speak! We get a real insight into the goings on at the time, and the role that those around him had on his interest being piqued on all matters to do with animals and the environment they were living in, and what could be learned.

Alongside his story, we see into the life of the author as she brings up her children to be just as interested in wildlife, encouraging them to explore with her on walks in the local area. She becomes obsessed with learning all she can about him and the use of letters from his sisters was a great way of seeing how they kept him in touch with matters from home while he was off travelling. Having lost his mother at a young age, it seemed his siblings became even closer, especially with his father being so busy.

It also touches on the ongoing work to preserve his legacy and keep sharing his work with people in the area, and how a humble garden can continue to teach us about the past and how we can imagine the area being used by those who lived there and what impact they have on shaping a young mind, such as Darwins', and how they continue to do so.

I learnt so much from this book and loved the use of diagrams, photos and drawings to illustrate and get a real feel of the area, especially for those who haven't been to visit!

I knew little of Charles Darwin and his work prior to reading The Ghost in the Garden and thought the premise of this book would bring an interesting insight into his life, separate to the more typical ‘dry’ biographies available.

The Ghost in the Garden beautifully blends investigation into Darwin, his life at The Mount and his research, with the authors own experiences of living in the area, raising her two children and her journey to learn more about Darwin’s family and associates.

The book includes excerpts from letters between Darwin and his sisters, bringing him to life as both boy and man, and showing how The Mount and particularly the garden helped to shape his later research for Origin.

I really liked that, although Charles is ‘the famous one’ in the family, the author chose to focus equal attention on his sisters, his mother and the staff at the property who all helped to build the garden and to assist in his research.

This isn’t your average historical research piece, instead merging investigation with fictional elements and the author’s musings to bring so much more life to the people of the past.

‘Why not a book on Darwin written from the garden up?’. The previously untold stories make this a gem of a book and also deliver some hard messages on the environmental issues our communities face today.