From the author of the international bestseller The Light Over London and The Whispers of War comes a poignant and unforgettable tale of five women living across three different times whose lives are all connected by one very special place.
We chat to author Julia Kelly about her new novel The Last Garden In England, book recommendations, what’s next for her, and more!
Hi, Julia! Tell us a bit about yourself!
I’m so excited to be talking to The Nerd Daily! I’m a historical fiction author of books like The Light Over London and The Whispers of War. I’m also an American expat living in the UK, so I count myself very lucky that I get to write stories about my new home country. My latest book, The Last Garden in England, is about five women living in three time periods who are all connected by a historic English garden that holds long-forgotten secrets.
2020 was an incredibly bizarre year, and it’s rolling on into 2021. Have you set any resolutions for the year?
I’m trying to take the good and bad things I learned from 2020 and build a better 2021 for myself. One of the big ones is doing a better job at paying attention to the signs my body and mind send me that I might be approaching burnout. I find being productive very satisfying, but I learned last year that I can overwork myself if I’m not careful—especially when dealing with the isolation that comes with lockdowns.
When did you first discover your love for writing?
I’ve been writing for as long as I can remember. When I was a kid, I was always scribbling little stories and promising myself I’d become an author one day. However, it wasn’t until I was in graduate school for journalism that I really started to take it seriously. I was working so hard at nonfiction writing, I craved the creativity of fiction.
Your new novel, The Last Garden In England, is out January 12th 2021! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?
Abandoned garden reveals life-long mysteries.
Now tell us a little more! What can readers expect?
The Last Garden in England follows five women from three different time periods who are all connected through an incredible English garden at an estate called Highbury House.
In 1907, Venetia Smith has carved out a niche for herself as a garden designer for the well-to-do looking to show off their wealth with sumptuous country houses. She is determined to make Highbury House a triumph, but the gardens there—and the people she meets—will change her life forever.
When land girl Beth Pedley arrives at a farm on the outskirts of the village of Highbury in 1944, all she wants is to find a place she can call home, while cook Stella Adderton could not be more desperate to leave Highbury House pursue her own dreams. Diana Symonds, a widow and the mistress of the grand house, is desperately trying to cling to her pre-war life now that Highbury House has been requisitioned to become a convalescent hospital for wounded soldiers. But when war threatens the gardens at Highbury House, these three women are drawn together by a secret that will last decades.
In the present day story, garden designer Emma Lovett has just been given the opportunity of a lifetime: to restore the abandoned gardens of Highbury House. But as Emma dives deeper into the garden’s past, she begins to uncover secrets that have long been hidden from history and realize that the job at Highbury House will be unlike any any she’s ever had before.
What was the inspiration behind this novel?
I grew up helping my dad garden. Although we lived in Southern California, he managed to create an amazing English garden full of roses and other beautiful plants. I also drew inspiration from visits to manor houses in and around the county of Warwickshire, which is where the book was set. I went to see the gardens at Hidcote Manor (which appears in the book), as well as Upton House and Kiftsgate Court. Each of those places is special in its own right, and I wanted to capture some of their uniqueness in writing about Highbury House.
Was there a certain scene or character that you enjoyed writing?
There is a scene relatively early in the 1944 timeline that brings Beth, Stella, and Diana together to save the gardens at Highbury House. The manor house is already being used as a convalescent hospital, and now the gardens have been earmarked for agricultural land to grow crops. The gardens are just about to be torn up when the three of them dramatically intervene, arguing that the gardens are valuable for supporting the recovery of soldiers at the convalescent hospital. I wanted to explore the tension between supporting the greater good and acknowledging that there needs to be a place for beauty even in a time of war.
What’s the best and worst writing advice you’ve received or heard?
The best advice is easy: read as much as you can both in and outside of your genre. Not only will it help you learn from other writers, it will also help you gather scraps of ideas that one day could become a book.
I tend to warn aspiring writers away from any advice that’s presented as something they must do. The truth is, everyone’s writing process is different. The important thing is to keep writing and keep trying.
What’s next for you?
I’m just about to start edits on my next book, which I can’t say much about except that it’s about debutantes in London in the late 1950s and I’m having an absolute blast writing it. I’m also very excited about the line-up of incredible writers that I have coming up on my Facebook Live series, Ask an Author with Julia Kelly including Sadeqa Johnson ( Yellow Wife) and Jennifer Robson (Our Darkest Night)!
Lastly, what are you currently reading and what 2021 book recommendations do you have for our readers?
I’m so excited for 2021 because there are so many incredible-looking historical novels coming out! I was lucky enough to get a sneak preview of Kelly Bowen’s The Paris Apartment and Genevieve Graham’s Letters from Across the Sea, both of which are fabulous. The book I’m most looking forward to this spring is Wild Women and the Blues by Denny S. Bryce.
