I'm always fascinated by the inspiration behind a book, and today I'm delighted to welcome Suzanne Snow to my blog, with a guest post about the gardens that find their way into her writing, and her latest novel, The Garden of Little Rose.
Over to you, Suzanne...
Books and Gardens
by Suzanne Snow
Growing up I always wanted to be an author and didn’t imagine I’d be ever be a gardener. I loved being outdoors looking after horses and watching the landscape changing across the seasons. Although I appreciated the beauty and the effort involved in creating a garden, I didn’t expect that such a thing would come to play a part in my own life.
Fast forward to developing my own garden at home and this pleasure eventually fed into my writing, and the character of Flora in The Garden of Little Rose was created. Flora is a garden historian, quite different to my own career planting redesigned gardens, but we both share a passion for plants and a belief that gardens are good for you.
For Róisín House in the book, I wanted to create a house with a history, and this story of love and loss is still being felt as Flora and Mac discover more about the people who came before them. I was inspired to write about Arts & Crafts gardens and chose this period of Victorian history for my story. The Arts & Crafts movement began in the mid to late nineteenth century as a reaction against the mass production becoming popular in design and manufacture.
The book is set on a fictional Hebridean island which I named Alana, and I hope to return to explore more of these wonderful communities in the future. I love the clear, turquoise waters warmed by the Gulf Stream, secluded beaches with white sand, towering sea stacks and stories of lives deeply connected to sea and their surroundings.
If you find yourself wandering around an old garden, and I hope it isn’t too long until you can, take a moment to consider its history and search out the detail. Perhaps it is one that was created with care to blend craftsmanship, a love of nature, and beauty reflected through simplicity into something special. I believe that such gardens and the pleasure they offer will always find their way into my writing.
Thank you, Suzanne, for giving us such an interesting insight into your writing life. Wishing The Garden of Little Rose, a book I very much enjoyed reading, every success.
The Garden of Little Rose
For love to grow, Flora will have to first dig up the past.
At a hen party on the remote Scottish island of Alana, Flora is dared to ask a handsome stranger to be her plus-one for the wedding. When the gorgeous Mac accepts her invite, she assumes he's joking and thinks nothing more of it... Until he turns up at the church on the wedding day.
But Mac has an agenda. He wants to hire her skills as a horticulturist to restore the gardens at Róisín House, his home back on Alana. Flora knows she should refuse - Mac has 'heartbreaker' written all over him - but she can't resist uncovering the tragic truth behind the garden at Róisín.
A heart-warming village love story for fans of Julie Houston, Victoria Walters and Trisha Ashley.
To purchase The Garden of Little Rose, please left click on the link below:
About Suzanne Snow
Suzanne writes contemporary, romantic and uplifting fiction with a strong sense of setting and community connecting the lives of her characters. When she's not writing or spending time with her family, she can usually be found in a garden or looking to the landscape around her for inspiration.
For more information about Suzanne and her writing please left click on the links below:
http://bit.ly/moreaboutmywriting
https://www.facebook.com/SnowProse