Winter reads

Above: Curl up with a good book

Hertfordshire Garden History
Over the past 600 years, Hertfordshire’s close proximity to London made it an ideal and fashionable place for the prosperous and noble members of London society to build their country retreats. Huge and lavish houses that had extensive gardens or parks were built. This book, edited by Anne Rowe, has been written by many local garden experts about the different garden fashions up to the 1940s. It features some of the most famous including Tring Park, Brocket Park, Newsells Bury, Bennington Lordship, Quickswood and John Scotts grotto. There was a considerable amount of money spent on their creation and Kate Harwood’s chapter on a new class of wealthy merchants made rich by the East India Company, describes how they brought with them new exotic influences. Some gardens had faux forts, tombs, and temples built in them and others were covered in exotic plants.

Hertfordshire Garden History
Edited by Anne Rowe
Published by Hertford Publications
ISBN: 9781905313389
Priced £12.99
Available from Life Books

Vision
The University of Hertfordshire’s Writing Award is a competition that aims to encourage new writing talent. This year has produced some outstanding short stories from writers from all over the world, aged from 18 to 86 including several Hertfordshire residents. The 20 finalists’ stories have been compiled to form this anthology, which makes for some interesting reading. The theme of this competition was ‘Vision’ and produced a huge variety of interpretations including runner-up, Toby Norways from Hertfordshire, who has written a wry cautionary tale about the evils of alcohol. In contrast, the winner was Nathalie Abi-Ezzi whose story The Snow Child, set in Finland is a mystery that has a haunting sadness.

Vision
Published by University of Hertfordshire Press
ISBN: 9781902806709
Priced £6.99
Available from Life Books

What Every Parent Should Know Before Their Child
Goes To Secondary School
At this time of year many parents are looking for the best or most suitable secondary school for their child for next year. This book by local mum Jane Bidder is a helpful step-by-step guide to the process and is full of handy tips about what to look for when visiting potential schools, what to ask and how to involve your child. She explains the new School’s Admission Code, procedures for applying and suggests some tactics to create an advantage should you need to appeal. The book also covers ways of reducing the shock for your child of starting at a large secondary school but stresses that every child deals with it in a completely different way. This also includes some of the problems that they might encounter during their time there, in particular the question of bullying.

What Every Parent Should Know Before Their Child Goes To Secondary School
By Jane Bidder
Published by White Ladder Press
ISBN: 9781905410200
Priced £9.99
Available from Life Books

Wild Flowers and Where to Find Them in the Chilterns
This is a lovely book for nature lovers by father and daughter team Laurie and Gay Fallows about where to find particular flowers in the Chilterns. Some of these are very rare and only found here or in very few places across the country. The book is well laid out with charts that indicate when flowering takes place, their habitat and an illustrated section for identifying them. Interestingly the authors list the culinary and medicinal uses of the plants. Impressively there are maps of 18 different walks throughout this wonderful area of natural beauty. These indicate where to find many of the flowers and the local pubs so that you can enjoy a rest along the way.

Wild Flowers and Where to Find Them in
the Chilterns
By Laurie Fallows and Gay Fallows
Published by Francis Lincoln Ltd.
ISBN: 9780711227804
Priced £7.99
Available from Life Books