Miranda Seymour
Passion For Cultivation
The Gardener's Year Book
By Karel Capek, Josef Capek (ill), Geoffrey Newsome (trans)
Claridge Press 200pp £12.99
KAREL CAPEK ACHIEVED international fame in 1923 when his play R.U.R. introduced the word robot into the Enghsh language in a blackly satirical vision of a world threatened by its automated workforce. The Capek brothers were already well known in their native Czechoslovakia, but Karel's disturbing science-fiction fantasy, The War with the Newts, is probably the work for which he is best remembered. Josef, whose enchanting and comical drawings illustrate ths book, dled at Belsen in 1945; Karel dled in 1938, the year in which Nazism put an end to the short-lived Czech independence which had been such a cause of rejoicing for the patriotic Capeks.
Such a politically minded couple might seem udkely collaborators on a study of horticulture, but The Gardener's Year Book, excellently translated by Geofiey Newsome, is a work of great charm and considerable subtlety which requires no more of the reader than a willingness to agree that it is a pleasant thing to own and cultivate a small patch of ground. Originally published as a series of articles in the 1920s, the book's lightly worn knowledge derives from the brothers' creation of a garden of their own for the house which they built together. It was,
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
Twitter Feed
London's East End was long synonymous with poverty and sweatshops, while its West End was associated with glamour and high society. But when it came to the fashion industry, were the differences really so profound?
Sharman Kadish - Winkle-pickers & Bum Freezers
Sharman Kadish: Winkle-pickers & Bum Freezers - Fashion City: How Jewish Londoners Shaped Global Style; Fashion City: ...
literaryreview.co.uk
In 1982, Donald Rumsfeld presented Saddam Hussein with a pair of golden spurs. Two decades later he was dropping bunker-busting bombs on his palaces.
Where did the US-Iraqi relationship go wrong?
Rory Mccarthy - The Case of the Vanishing Missiles
Rory Mccarthy: The Case of the Vanishing Missiles - The Achilles Trap: Saddam Hussein, the United States and the ...
literaryreview.co.uk
Barbara Comyns was a dog breeder, a house painter, a piano restorer, a landlady... And a novelist.
@nclarke14 on the lengths 20th-century women writers had to go to make ends meet:
Norma Clarke - Her Family & Other Animals
Norma Clarke: Her Family & Other Animals - Barbara Comyns: A Savage Innocence by Avril Horner
literaryreview.co.uk