Radical Prunings: A Novel: A Novel of Officious Advice from the Contessa of Compost

Subtle, tongue in cheek humor. Especially for gardeners who know a little something about horticulture - you need some knowledge to 'get' her humor. Loved it!

While RADICAL PRUNINGS is fiction, any gardener will relish the opinionated reflections of one Mertensia Corydalis, a cutting set of vicarious garden reflections presenting the 'collected horticultural columns' and catalog of a prickly botanical advice writer. Any gardener will find it filled with fun moments and gardening reflections. Diane C. Donovan California Bookwatch

Life at Miltonhurst is organized around two things--gardening and the Q & A column of one Miss Mertensia Corydalis. As for the rest--not so organized. She comes from a long line of expert gardeners--it is in her blood, but please, please, don't ask her about lawn care. This makes her blood boil. Mertensia's operation is small, organic and old world. Her publication is rival to the ever expanding landscaping empire of Norton Doyle. Norton, who is decidedly non-organic in his approach, happens to be her ex husband. Her brother Artur, and assistants Tran and Miss Vong, add to the chaos in a book that reads like an unintentional diary. You are eager to find out what else slips into her column besides sound advice. However, it can get personal. Miss Mertensia seems prudish and formal on the surface--but not so. She is never crude but always full of double entendre. It is the reader who has the dirty mind. Never the less, Abbott's star character is highly literate. Her lush descriptions and it must be said, rapier wit make this the intelligent reader's humor title of the year. Beyond their antics, you can truly learn a thing or two about the real world of horticulture. Abbott is the gourment of the garden. Included is a recipe for candied violets from the backyard. Yum. Please buy this book--you will laugh and learn simultaneously.