"My writing has always flourished when I've had a garden"
Dispatch from Writing with the Seasons - May 2024
Welcome to this short dispatch from ‘Writing with the Seasons’. If you’re not already a premium subscriber, you can sign up here to enjoy our essays and audio courses as they unfold season by season.
Marchelle Farrell has an incredibly steep garden in Somerset, with terraces and stairs, winding paths and an abundance of flowers. Her lyrical memoir ‘Uprooting’ is about making a home in the peaceful English countryside, the only Black woman in her village. It’s the garden that connects her to the land, to her family and other people, and to herself.
When she tends the plants on this slope, she often meets the plants at eye level. The book, Marchelle says, came into existence because of this:
There is something about the topography which is humbling. It places you as one among the plants, one among the many creatures living in this space. And as the seasons progress from winter to the moment everything comes into flower, I was often meeting them up close.
I would become really fascinated, often snapping photos of the flowers up close, like portraits of their faces. That guided a lot of my writing and led to the reason why each chapter of the book is named after a flower. The flowers feel like autonomous creatures in the garden, autonomous people with their own personalities, and on an equal standing with us humans who live here.
This story was exhilarating to hear, how the narrative of Marchelle’s book emerged directly from a relationship between a place and a person. She views the garden as co-author of the book.
I was so glad to speak with her recently at a Write & Shine event. "My writing has always flourished when I've had a garden," she said. Whether it’s peonies in a vase, a little flowerbox, or a whole garden, Marchelle’s words are a reminder of the value of growing plants to tune into ourselves, care for others and ignite creative ideas.
Marchelle Farrell’s book Uprooting is available on Bookshop. We love it! Writing with the Seasons is brought to you by Write & Shine. Spring artwork by Tara Reed.