Media — Sue Stuart-Smith

Reviews

The Sunday Times

“Must be the most original gardening book ever.” John Carey

“Stuart-Smith’s beautifully written book is filled with insights into the joys but also the remarkable therapeutic benefits that tending plants can offer… This is a life-affirming study of the special pleasures of growing things.” PD Smith

The Observer

“Fascinating… Extends the awareness – backed up by compendious and elegant research – of how mentally enriching it is to swap screen for green… [She] renders a very special service with this book.” Kate Kellaway

The Times

“Combines observation, horticulture, literature and history… it is a book that builds, chapter by chapter… As a reference and an inspiration… There is much here to feed the soul.” Ann Treneman

Daily Mail

“The Well-Gardened Mind elegantly weaves in case histories with snippets of memoir.” Constance Craig Smith

Gardens Illustrated

“This is a book so wise and comfortable that it merits a place alongside Christopher Lloyd’s The Well-Tempered Garden by the side of every bed… Her deep understanding of the human psyche makes this a perfect source text as well as an engrossing read.” Marian Boswall

The Spectator

“…a readable and blessedly comprehensible account which, considering the complexity of much of the subject matter, especially to do with the brain, is an impressive achievement. It contains, au fond, both a very personal and a universal narrative.” Ursula Buchan

Booklist

“Wise, insightful, and eloquent, Stuart-Smith’s soulful and sensitive treatise on horticulture’s healing properties is a well-positioned book for the current age of anxiety, offering a personally relevant perspective on how to cope in troubled times.” Carol Haggas

Kirkus

“[Stuart-Smith] delivers a thoroughly researched text based on her deep and wide reading about the history of gardening, her visits to many of the therapeutic garden sites she mentions, and her interviews with many people, professionals and patients alike... Full of surprise and wonder.”

The Hippocratic Post

“This stylishly written book is filled with insights into the therapeutic benefits of gardening can offer everyone.” Rebecca Wallersteiner

The Tablet

”Her plea that we need to rediscover nature in the modern world is so powerfully argued that I too wondered why I was sitting indoors reading her book on a sunny afternoon... Stuart-Smith brings fresh discernment... I also welcomed her insights from her long career as a doctor.” Rachel Kelly

Church Times

“It is one of those beautiful books that opens so many windows in your mind that you feel not just better informed but wiser for reading it.” Pat Ashworth

View From Federal Twist

“What she has accomplished is to greatly broaden the scope of her endeavor, to see the common humanity among vastly different people, in many parts of the world, living lives of almost inconceivable diversity; breaking down barriers and prejudicial distinctions; ignoring the walls we’ve erected between scientists and artists and prisoners; and revealing the profound importance of gardens, nature, and greenness to human lives—to all human lives.” James Golden

The Wall Street Journal

“She skillfully weaves into her narrative a rich, idiosyncratic mix of archeological evidence of man’s earliest gardens, quotations from Scripture and the great books, and anecdotes from her own psychotherapy practice." Barbara Paul Robinson

The Seattle Times

“The book, a meaty volume combining personal interviews and social science studies, reveals how connecting with nature nourishes and grounds us, instilling a sense of shelter and safety even if (when) the world around us is fraught.” Lorene Edwards Forkner