Back cover of Autobiogardens and other poems

It was through the gardens in literature that I sensed the importance of gardens in a person's psyche.  From the gardens in fairy tales to Il giardino dei Finzi-Contini by Giorgio Bassani.  Umbrous space and quiet brought out a certain sensibility, central to an individual’s personality.  It was also the place where a person could hide from the world, or disguise her real intentions under other preoccupations, as in The cherry orchard by Anton Chekov, or in a A voyage round my father by John Mortimer.   My childhood memories were closely linked to gardens, but it was only when writing Autobiogardens that I realized that my interest in gardens in literature  stemmed  from the experience of my own perception of the gardens I grew up in.