Walled Gardens
Scenes from an Anglo-Irish Childhood

Praise For Walled Gardens

A unique character and flavour, which is extraordinarily well conveyed. - William Trevor, Irish Times
"Walled Gardens" breaks loose a silent hell of implication. It is a premature epitaph for a distinct and powerful tribal subculture that though now long without nourishment refuses to die. The book's joy's, lean and simple, are the wordless chant of survival. - Michael Packenham, New York Times

The author conveys brilliantly the inexplicable clarity of certain childhood recollections, and her descriptions of places and people are evocative, sometimes moving and sometimes very funny. . . .skilful and engaging.

- Isabel Colegate, Washington Post

This evocative memoir is far from gloomy, however. The author, whose youthful perceptions were sharpened by an inherent apprehensiveness, was a shrewd observer of people, with an eye to the comic, and she was alive to the beauty and richness of the Irish landscape and seascape, and to the wonders that flourished in the walled gardens of the old estates, like her family's Ballinaparka. This recapture of the past is layered, for it is also the unsentimental story of a sensitive girl's coming to maturity , and her discovery that unsuspected strengths of character were part of her heritage. She writes with detachment and clarity and clears the picture of the Irish ascendancy so often blurred by the sympathies or burlesqued by the laughter of acclaimed Irish writers.

- Molly Keane, Spectator

Her narrative has a quality of brilliant social anthropology . . . she writes with a delicacy of touch and beauty of style.

- John Keegan, The Daily Telegraph

Trade paperback in print in England.