Overview

Love From Kew is a postbag full of scribbled stories - tiny tales from visitors’ lives are entwined with Kew’s secrets in an imaginative and beautiful scrapbook of poetic postcard prose that sings with the spirit of the Gardens. Postcards let us look into lives – their scribbled stories are cryptic, funny and poignant. The everyday is captured in inky messages about birthdays, snow, exams, dancing, and love, written on picture postcards from Kew Gardens. Told with wonder and imagination, author Sophie Shillito entwines these tiny tales with secrets from the landscape which mumble through the turf and whisper in the bushes. Love From Kew offers a fascinating insight into this social anthropology and micro-history, revealing the human need to connect with Kew and the natural world, as well as the importance of communicating with loved ones – two themes that are ever more precious and valued in recent times.

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9781842467329

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Reviews

"“I adore this book, which captures the magic of Kew and tells the stories of people who share my true love for the Gardens.” -- Dame Judi Dench ""A gem of a book, combining a love of Kew Gardens with slices of everyday life, tied together with a ribbon of poetic storytelling. I loved it.""   -- Tracy Chevalier, author of Girl with a Pearl Earring ""Postcards were the social media of Victorian and pre-digital Britain. Short messages penned at the time show how Britain’s premier garden lifted spirits and calmed anxieties during those often rare occasions when ordinary people were able to escape the daily job or relentless domestic duties. Kew remains an oasis of tranquility in an increasingly frantic world.""   -- Frances Pryor, archaeologist and author ""Sophie’s rich and often wonderfully unexpected imagery makes this a delightful way to learn more about the Gardens’ history.""   -- Lisa Woollett, author and photographer “Shillito adds in details of Kew’s history as well as some imaginings sparked by the pictures themselves to give us a book that is both charming and a reminder of the key role green spaces—and our access to them—play in our daily life.” * Gardens Illustrated *"

Shillito adds in details of Kew's history as well as some imaginings sparked by the pictures themselves to give us a book that is both charming and a reminder of the key role green spaces - and our access to them - play in our daily life. -- Gardens Illustrated I adore this book, which captures the magic of Kew and tells the stories of people who share my true love for the Gardens. --Dame Judi Dench Sophie's rich and often wonderfully unexpected imagery makes this a delightful way to learn more about the Gardens' history. --Lisa Woollett, author and photographer Postcards were the social media of Victorian and pre-digital Britain. Short messages penned at the time show how Britain's premier garden lifted spirits and calmed anxieties during those often rare occasions when ordinary people were able to escape the daily job or relentless domestic duties. Kew remains an oasis of tranquility in an increasingly frantic world. --Frances Pryor, archaeologist and author A gem of a book, combining a love of Kew Gardens with slices of everyday life, tied together with a ribbon of poetic storytelling. I loved it. --Tracy Chevalier, author of Girl with a Pearl Earring

I adore this book, which captures the magic of Kew and tells the stories of people who share my true love for the Gardens. --Dame Judi Dench Sophie's rich and often wonderfully unexpected imagery makes this a delightful way to learn more about the Gardens' history. --Lisa Woollett, author and photographer Postcards were the social media of Victorian and pre-digital Britain. Short messages penned at the time show how Britain's premier garden lifted spirits and calmed anxieties during those often rare occasions when ordinary people were able to escape the daily job or relentless domestic duties. Kew remains an oasis of tranquility in an increasingly frantic world. --Frances Pryor, archaeologist and author A gem of a book, combining a love of Kew Gardens with slices of everyday life, tied together with a ribbon of poetic storytelling. I loved it. --Tracy Chevalier, author of Girl with a Pearl Earring

Author Information

Sophie Shillito writes about place, palimpsests, and micro-histories. Her first book, All The Little Places (Blue Mark Books, 2020) is a haunting poetic-prose tapestry of fairytale fragments. Sophie lives in London. She likes mudlarking and mountains. www.sophieshillito.com

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