Horatio’s Garden was featured in a recent edition of The Observer as part of Kate Kellaway’s thoughtful review of Sue Stuart-Smith’s The Well Gardened Mind and Isabel Hardman’s The Natural Health Service.
In her article Kate captures the essence of the two titles, which seem timelier than ever in light of the Coronavirus crisis, describing them as ‘a fascinating pair of books on the therapeutic potential of the natural world – one by a psychiatrist, the other by a patient’.
She praised Sue Stuart-Smith’s work, particularly her ‘compendious and elegant research’ encouraging people to fully realise how neurologically important simply caring for a plant or garden can be. Kate drew on Horatio’s Garden as one of the book’s many examples of exceptional therapeutic gardens, which features alongside the Insight Garden project at San Quentin jail and a vegetable garden for recovering addicts in San Patrignano, Italy.
Such examples artfully demonstrate that the benefits of gardening can reach everyone, which perhaps subconsciously prompted Kate to share her hope that the two books not only reach the converted, but those who need gardening most.
The Natural Health Service illustrates how vital a lifeline the natural world can be. Kate introduces readers to author Isabel, who in her book shares her story of suffering from PTSD and her subsequent discovery that it was “the great outdoors which made me want to keep living.”
Kate’s review is similarly complimentary of Isabel’s work, particularly her acknowledgement of every individual prescription being different and her careful maintenance that natural cures should be for everyone.
We hope you’ll enjoy both books immensely and if you would like to read more of Kate’s review, please CLICK HERE.
