The French Gardener (Hodder & Stoughton, Mar 2008, ISBN-13: 978-0340840481) is about the lives of two women who are miles apart in terms of time of life but who are connected by one house, it's gardens and a French man.
Main Characters
Miranda Claybourne is a modern wife who has moved to the countryside to Hartington House. She has left her bright city life behind her with great reluctance and feels she will never fit in to the countryside and country folk. Miranda is a writer who dreams of being a novelist but can never find the inspiration. In fact, when we first meet Miranda she comes across as a spoilt and immature woman of two children who quite frankly deserve better. David her husband is the City banker playing at Lord of the Manor and who begins to play away and nearly loses it all.
Jean Paul is the gardener who has knowledge of Hartington House from a different time. He has returned to find the woman he left behind, but find Miranda instead. His story is told through the eyes of a scrapbook, left behind by the woman he loved. Jean Paul is the talk of the village and he weaves an enchanting path, which enables others to tread and find their own happiness.
Summary
Things start to change in Miranda’s life when she discovers a run down cottage in the grounds of the house. Here she discovers the scrapbook, which had been compiled by the previous owner Ava Lightly and tells of her secret love affair with a mysterious gardener. When Jean Paul turns up on her doorstep, Miranda struggles with her feelings for this handsome mysterious Frenchman and immediately takes him on to help her restore the neglected gardens. As Jean Paul weaves his magic, he not only reels in Miranda, but her two children and most of the women in the village. However, there is sadness about Jean Paul that Miranda cannot describe. She starts to find her writing muse as she starts to read the tale told through beautiful prose and the garden, the legacy left by Ada.
Miranda realises what things are important to her just as her husband David is risking their relationship for a quick and dirty fling with her 'best' friend. Then she realises just who her French gardener actually is and that he has not only returned to restore the garden. The garden he first shared with Ava nearly thirty years previously. And that Ava has kept a secret from him. Jean Paul is reconnected with Ava but only through a product of their love. A daughter. And Miranda can now start to put her life back together.
About the Author
Santa Montefiore grew up in Hampshire, England and read Spanish and Italian at Exeter University. She is married to the historian Simon Sebag Montefiore and they have two children. She has written a number of novels.
