Miss Whaley was a charming woman so it is no surprise that her memoir would be charming as well. One episode I remember her description of the teen dances where an elderly woman raucously played on piano "60 Minute Man," a popular R&B song that is still a Carolina beach music classic. She was oblivious of the song's meaning. Miss Whaley was famously opinionated. So is her book. Though I am a Charlestonian on my father's side I did not know Miss Whaley from Charleston, but as a summer resident in North Carolina's "Little Charleston," Flat Rock where she was a member of our congregation at St John in the Wilderness Episcopal Church. Very fond of her and her lively memoir. She is missed. ( )

Miss Whaley was a charming woman so it is no surprise that her memoir would be charming as well. One episode I remember her description of the teen dances where an elderly woman raucously played on piano "60 Minute Man," a popular R&B song that is still a Carolina beach music classic. She was oblivious of the song's meaning. Miss Whaley was famously opinionated. So is her book. Though I am a Charlestonian on my father's side I did not know Miss Whaley from Charleston, but as a summer resident in North Carolina's "Little Charleston," Flat Rock where she was a member of our congregation at St John in the Wilderness Episcopal Church. Very fond of her and her lively memoir. She is missed. ( )

Miss Whaley was a charming woman so it is no surprise that her memoir would be charming as well. One episode I remember her description of the teen dances where an elderly woman raucously played on piano "60 Minute Man," a popular R&B song that is still a Carolina beach music classic. She was oblivious of the song's meaning. Miss Whaley was famously opinionated. So is her book. Though I am a Charlestonian on my father's side I did not know Miss Whaley from Charleston, but as a summer resident in North Carolina's "Little Charleston," Flat Rock where she was a member of our congregation at St John in the Wilderness Episcopal Church. Very fond of her and her lively memoir. She is missed. ( )

The garden is rather incidental to the rest of the memoirs of Mrs. Whaley. A pleasant, possibly rather rose-coloured vision by a woman who by and large was extremely fortunate in her privileged life. The endflap claims that five million visitors a year pass through Mrs Whaley's small garden; even if this is an exaggeration it boggles the mind completely. One hesitates to condemn a book of this kind as a "vanity project" - the subject was, after all, eighty-six when it was written and therefore entitled to some respectful allowances - but there is a bit of that atmosphere... ( )

Was able to view her garden on a walking tour of Charleston. Jewel of a garden. Very small garden but very well designed. Lovely little book! ( )