The Paper Garden cover art

The Paper Garden

An Artist Begins Her Life's Work at 72

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About this listen

In The Paper Garden, celebrated poet Molly Peacock explores the remarkable life of 18th-century British gentlewoman-turned-artist Mary Delany. In the 1770s, at the age of 72, the twice-widowed and nearly broke Delany turned her interest in botany into beautiful paper “mosaick” flowers still revered today.

©2010 Molly Peacock (P)2011 Recorded Books, LLC Art Historical Women

Critic reviews

"[N]ot only an introduction to a unique artist, but also a whole bouquet of thoughts and observations about the flow of life.” ( Washington Post)
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I enjoyed listening to Mary's and Molly's stories, highly appreciated the narrator's voice and reading style and got very curious about the collages, which then made me also buy the printed version of the book. I feel this is one of those books that one would want to touch.

Very interesting story, great narrator

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This was an absolute joy to listen to. It’s beautifully written and the subject fascinating. The narrator does a wonderful job. She might be my favourite female audiobook reader.

Gorgeous Language & Inspirational

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I purchased this audio book expecting a well crafted, historical biography about Mrs Delaney.

For such a fascinating woman with an incredible story, I would have thought that having her as source material would more than fill a book, with no need for padding or superfluous additions.

Unfortunately the author clearly didn't feel the same, and has instead padded out Mrs Delaney's story with the author's own autobiography.

Whilst I see how the author might feel that her life mirrors that of Mrs Delaney, weaving your own story into that of another feels a tad presumptive. Having re-read the blurb about the book I see now that it does state that the author has included her own autobiography, but the additional 'content' does feel like it waters down the historical content.

Equally, why it was necessary to include salacious Mills and Boon bodice-ripper style imaginings of Mrs Delaney's sex life is beyond me. Again it's unnecessary and also disrespectful to the memory of the subject, not to mention the intellect of the listener.

The three stars I've given for the review are purely for the biographical bits of Mrs Delaney's life and artistry. Without all the 'padding' it would have most definitely been 5 stars.

Mills and Boon bonkbuster - lite

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