Frances Lincoln Limited, publishers, approached me recently to review Sarah Raven’s latest book “Sarah Raven’s Cutting Garden Journal“, I was eager to see what it would be like and was pleased when it arrived. The book is due to be published on 4 September 2014 so it is always a privilege to have a book before it is available.
Actually, this is not really a ‘new’ book, but a month-by-month journal format of Sarah’s first book “The Cutting Garden” which was originally published in 1996 and republished in June 2013. Most of the text and the photographs are from the original book, however as I don’t own a copy of “The Cutting Garden” this didn’t bother me. It does mean that I am not in the position to compare the two books, which is probably just as it should be.
There are 2-4 jotting pages for personal notes spread through each monthly section which, if you don’t have any objection to writing in a book, I can see could be quite useful. Personally, I would find this difficult having been brought up when a child that you do not write in books!
Each month contains relevant monthly advice on planting, sowing, cultivation, cutting and creating arrangements, together with:
A monthly project – July has 3 pages dedicated to creating flower arrangements using yellow and red sunflowers, dahlias and dill.
Jobs for the month – September has advice on bulb care and planting along with with collecting and planting seeds and seedlings.
Flowers of the Month - December has information on Viburnum, Cornus and Hamamelis.
I particularly liked the size of this book, it is smaller than the original measuring 210 mm x 150 mm (as opposed to 255 mm x 255 mm) but is slightly thicker with 192 pages (168 pages in the original book). It is a comfortable size to hold and read, sometimes I find the larger coffee table type book, whilst ok to browse, difficult to look through when looking for information.
Sarah Raven’s Cutting Garden Journal would make a great gift, especially if you are starting to collect Christmas presents!
As I said earlier, the publishing date is 4 September 2014 but you can pre-order now and the lovely people at Frances Lincoln are offering a discount to all my readers.
To order Sarah Raven’s Cutting Garden Journal at the discounted price of £11.99 including p&p* (RRP: £14.99), telephone 01903 828503 or email mailorders@lbsltd.co.uk and quote the offer code APG200.
*UK ONLY – Please add £2.50 if ordering from overseas.Look out for the next book review: “Of Cabbages and Kings – The History of Allotments” by Caroline Foley.