Sarah Hardy

1946 and whilst the country struggles to repair itself after the end of the war, in the small Suffolk village of Oakbourne that seems impossible. At the big house, Alice finds her husband returned a changed man, pushing her away and not wanting to engage with a decaying estate and wife who just wants to love him. The local doctor, once a promising surgeon but now disabled and suffering tremors whose children are scared of him. The local curate, excused the war because of an illness that will kill him sooner rather than later, falling in love with a married woman. At the centre is Alice, a woman who life is exemplified by the desolate garden she so desperately want to restore.
In the author blurb at the end of this book, Hardy describes some her inspirations as being writers of slow-burn novels and this is evident here. The book just pulls the reader closer and closer in and is wonderful in that way. Characterisation is great, each damaged person is revealed slowly and the secrets of the men are heartbreaking. Whilst the ending seems almost trite it actually works really well and I felt emotionally invested throughout.… (more)

It's 1946 and Stephen Rayne has returned home from the war a broken man, unable to forget what he experienced and the part he played. His wife, Alice, having expected the husband she remembered, is shocked and often frightened by his anger and bewildered by his complete indifference to her and to everyone and everything around him. Stephen is the heir of the Oakbourne estate including the hall which is literally falling apart. I thought it was an interesting perspective having Stephen as somebody whom the people of the local village were supposed to look up to when he couldn't bear the sight of anyone, least of all himself.

The Walled Garden is a beautifully written, at times heartbreaking, novel. It asks how any man can see the horrors of war and then return to everyday life, not only because those horrors replay over and over, but also because the feeling of being needed is suddenly taken away from them. But equally, the women of this book feel similarly about their war, in which they weren't simply required to look after the home but found a new purpose in life, albeit temporarily.

Alice finds comfort in the rebuilding of the estate's walled garden and in the company of another man who provides salvation in more ways than one. I really liked her character and her love for the outdoors, with the possibility of new growth giving her hope for the future.

This is not a fast-paced read, but it is one that must be savoured. I found myself drawn in to the characters' lives, not just Stephen and Alice, but the parallel stories of Jonathan and Jane Downes, also struggling with the aftermath of war, him the local doctor and her, once required to plug the gap her husband left, now relegated back to cooking, cleaning and mending once again.

The Walled Garden is a thought-provoking and powerful look at the futility of war and the difficulties of dealing with the mental and physical after-effects. I found it to be a compelling and moving read, with much to think about. It's a wonderful debut from Sarah Hardy.… (more)