Book
Garden by Mary Walton Upchurch LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT INC
Synopsis
We all search for love in our lives, for appreciation of our true selves. As the hero and heroine pursue these goals in The Garden at Sandys Hall, the reader vicariously pursues them too. This classic romance offers the allure of foreign settings, the pleasure of finely drawn scenes between characters, and the excitement of fast-paced fiction.
In London a wealthy playboy meets a lovely but naïve landscape architect, and hoping to seduce her, he hires her to design a garden at his estate. From the beginning, she has one thing in mind, while he has quite another. Complications arise when the playboy’s former girlfriend schemes to break up his new affair and the landscape architect’s former lover arrives in London, intent on winning her back.
So pour your favorite cup of tea, relax in a cozy spot, and I’ll tell you just what happened….
Praise
“It’s a novel of manners and romance, a classic love story…. Mary Walton is a wonderful writer of this genre which is popular with women who buy 85% of the books worldwide.”
—Helen Pratt, executive
“It was fun and fast-paced…. It should be published by a publisher who is accustomed to publishing good, solid love stories….”
—Jennie Richey Votel, National Account Manager, Broadway, Doubleday, BDD Audio, Random House Inc.
“Strong writing…. Subtly drawn with a confident hand…. A really interesting story, well-told.”
—Zoe Ingalls, Former Managing Editor, Duke Magazine, alumni magazine, Duke University
“It’s a page-turner. I couldn’t put it down. I read it in three days.”
—Tina Barr, author, Kaleidoscope Poems and Green Target
“Three days? I read it in one!”
—Melanie Sherman, executive
Spinning Straw into Gold
We all search for beauty in our lives—in the natural world, in the written world, in the painted world. As a landscape architect, writer and artist, I create beauty in all three worlds. What do good landscape design, fiction and watercolor have in common?
They spin straw into gold: through artistic alchemy, they transform the ordinary into the extraordinary.
As I burrowed deep in the library at Wellesley College and as I worked in the studio at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, I was motivated by one goal: to create beautiful and useful outdoor spaces for people. This quiet motivation powered me through my career as a landscape architect in Montgomery, Alabama.
Along the way, I discovered I could create compelling scenes in words as well as in three-dimensional spaces. I could give readers the same delight I wanted to create for landscape clients. And it’s so much easier to do it in words; there are no owners wringing their hands over costs while the bulldozers roar and contractors point out problems.
In both landscape design and in fiction, I am inspired to weave appreciation for the past into the present. I created the idea and led the team that developed the Alabama History Walk in front of the Alabama capitol. The current Alabama governor has now built a new version by others of this design for the Alabama Bicentennial celebration.
Just as I researched Alabama history for the History Walk, I spent years researching British history for my novel. I have set the characters in this story against the sweep of British history. For all these reasons, The Garden at Sandys Hall A Love Story spins straw into gold.
Excerpt
The night was black as outer space, and in the interior of the Mercedes sports car, the dials and gauges on the dashboard glowed pale green in the dim light. In the passenger seat, Celia Middleton thought the dials were as mystifying as those in the cockpit of an aircraft. The power of the motor vibrated through her. The engine in overdrive was racing the darkness. Road signs and fence posts slipped past her. At the touch of the accelerator, the car seemed ready to leap into the night. Celia thought dizzily, If we go any faster, we'll take flight.