This original, lyrical book about creating gardens and writing poems is a part- love song to nature and part memoir. The poems are vivid; the illustrations by Rosamond Ulph are a delight, and together, they are an integral part of the strong evocation of a garden as a place of physical and mental rejuvenation and sanctuary.

The salve, the balm of the title, is a thread through the different gardens, binding the whole. For instance, how Sally Carr liked nothing better than wading in the stream in her garden in Long Crendon, how her favourite writing space was upstairs in the dovecote in a village near Chippenham; the deep silence of its keep-like space, hearing only the birds through the open side door with its heavy stone lintel and stone steps, the telephone far away, part of another world.

This is a highly, evocative, magical book for anyone seeking a salve for the modern world, and for seasoned gardeners alike.