Conversations with my Gardener - Tapa blanda

"* 'The charm of this book lies in its characters' easy discourse on the minutiae of everyday life' Observer Review * 'A very gentle rebuttle to the argument that the art of conversation has been lost' The Herald (Glasgow) * 'It shows why it is worth bothering with dustballs and idle chat. Like many French films- a good Rohmer, for instance- its romance lies in the way it reminds you that there is great pleasure to be had in focusing on the mundane' Telegraph (Art&Books) * 'This curious memoir of a friendship is almost entirely dialogue. At first it seems merely cute... but it gradually exerts a poignant fascination' Guardian"

Tales of life, death and lettuce in a French garden. Two men, both advancing in years, converse deep in the French countryside. One is an artist, the other his gardener. On finishing his work, the gardener enters the studio and looks over the artist's shoulder. As the artist draws, the gardener talks: about his youth, his family, his travels, his health, and, of course, the pleasures of gardening. Sometimes the artist responds, sometimes he just listens; but, all the while the bond between these two very different men is deepening. Their growing friendship produces many moments of dry humour: when the gardener visits the artist in Paris, he brings an anvil along in his luggage; the pair go to the forest on a mission to steal a twenty- foot fir tree; they marvel at the curious habits of local characters, and ponder whether a modern-day Jesus would take a job on the railway. There are moments of profundity, too, when the two friends reflect on their own mortality, and the equally taxing question of whether a lettuce can be as beautiful as a painting.