British broadcaster and writer on horticulture, Monty Don, has presented Gardeners’ World on BBC2 for 17 years and has written close to 30 books.
It is said that a writer hones their skills and talent by reading other authors. This is certainly true of Monty. Indeed, it’s while he is talking about his latest book, My Garden World, that he reveals his love of reading.
“While I have been very busy this year writing and filming, I have also – during lockdown – spent time re-reading old favourites of mine,” he says. “It’s a kind of comfort reading, you might say - Thomas Hardy, the poetry of Edgar Allen Poe - When you revisit a much-loved piece of literature, it is reassuring because you know just what to expect. You know what’s coming. It’s completely different to reading something new.”
It goes without saying that Monty reads voraciously in order to write his own books.
“In My Garden World, for instance, my two pages about weasels or kestrels involved reading two books on each first,” he explains. “Researching wildlife and nature is endlessly fascinating. As I get older, I’m more and more astonished by how clever and wonderful the natural world is. Take the house martins that nest in the eaves of my house. We don’t know exactly where they go when they migrate back to Africa each year but they know where to go and where to come back to. That degree of knowledge and sheer mechanical ability to navigate the world is astonishing.”
As I get older, I'm more and more astonished by how clever and wonderful the natural world is
Monty says his inspiration for his latest book came from the love of nature and wildlife he has nurtured since childhood.
“From a very early age I loved the countryside as much as any garden and was fascinated by the life that I saw all around me from trees, wildflowers, birds, insects and mammals,” he says.
“In a sense, this book has been more than 60 years in gestation. I have kept notebooks and journals ever since I could write and I have drawn upon these, as well as the events of the past year.”
The book is Monty’s own personal journey through the natural year, month by month, season by season, observed from the immediate world all around him.
“It struck me in a way that we have become disconnected from the natural world close to home by virtue of the incredible nature we see on TV,” he explains.
“While these programmes about, for instance, snow-leopards, penguins and falling glaciers are incredible and wonderful, it sometimes feels like nature is removed from our own backyards. It’s not. It’s everywhere.
“You don’t even need a garden. Look out from a window on the 13th floor and see a bird flying across your eye-line. That bird has come from somewhere and it’s going somewhere, and for a moment you and the bird are in the same world together. This is what interests me. I wanted to show that this big, mysterious natural world is just outside your door. It’s yours. It’s not something that happens elsewhere to other people or in other places. It’s right here and now, today.”
Working in the garden is very good for mental health
Monty, who has had his own battles with depression in the past, is passionate about the benefits of the natural world for those suffering from mental health issues and depression.
“There is no question that getting outside into nature and working in the garden is very good for mental health,” he says. “You’re in the moment and not thinking about anything else. Problem is that when you are depressed, you may neither want to go out nor feel able. But try and it will feel like a little light faraway to begin with. We don’t exactly know why but gardening and being outside works.”
Getting creative at Christmas
Christmas is, of course, just around the corner. Monty, who lives in Herefordshire with wife Sarah, is clearly a fan of the festivities.
“It is a family celebration we enjoy very much and I always buy the biggest tree I can fit into the house – and from the same local grower for the past 25 years,” he writes on his website. “We cut flowers from the garden, make wreaths with dried stems and flowers, put up big bunches of mistletoe from the apple trees in the orchard and fill the house with green.”
My Garden World, for Nigel
This year’s celebrations may well be muted due to the pandemic, and also by the fact that this will be Monty’s first Christmas since his beloved Golden Retriever, Nigel – who received more cards and presents than any other member of the Don household – passed away in May, aged 12.
“I’ll always miss Nigel very much,” says Monty (65), “but the good thing is that he had a long life, a happy life, and no illness. He had gone to bed happy the night before and had died by midday the next day. It wasn’t slow or drawn out.”
Monty dedicated My Garden World to Nigel who is now buried in the garden, having been laid to rest with 20 tennis balls and some of his favourite biscuits.
It’s thought that Monty may well get a new dog at some point but meanwhile he still has Golden Retriever, Nellie and Yorkshire Terrier Patti.
“They’ve become inseparable,” he says.
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