Between the Covers: A Good Read

A good read just waiting for you to tuck in

A good read is sometimes hard to come by, but not if you pick up The Paper Garden: Mrs. Delany begins her life's work at 72 by acclaimed poet Molly Peacock.  

A Life's Work

 

Mary Granville Pendarves Delany (1700 -1788) was born of a long line of royalist supporters who were in serve to the crown.  She was a friend of George Frideric Handel's, an occasional dinner partner of Jonathon Swift's, and a life-long friend and companion of Margaret Cavendish Bentinck, the Duchess of Portland.  She was also a wife, two times: once arranged at the tender age of  seventeen to a sixty-one-year-old drunk; a second time married at age forty-three to the love of her life, Patrick Delany.  A fashion connoisseur, a keen observer of nature and an artist, she began her life's work -- the creation of nearly 1000 botanically accurate cut-paper flower collages -- at age 72! 

A Wash, a Snip, a Swirl

A wash of colour, a snip of paper and a swirl of glue combined countless times until 985 astonishingly detailed flower mosaicks (a term Mary ascribed to them) took root and bloomed.  But the book isn't just a biography of Mary Delany and how she came to her life's work; it's a swirl, a flourish, a collage of the author's, Molly Peacock, own life beautifully juxtaposed and interwoven with Mary's, lived nearly three-hundred years ago.  Illustrated with thirty-five full-colour plates, the writing is poetic and engaging, saucy and bold.  Including tidbits 

Cover shot

on fashion, gossip, court life, and politics, it explores the nature of creativity and what it means to have lived a good life.

Today, most of Mary's creations are housed in the British Museum and can be viewed upon request.



Passiflora laurifolia, Bay Leaved (Passion flower) by Mary Delany, August 1777,
from the collection of the British Museum.



 

 

 

 

 Top photo D. Sleziak

Book cover via Chapters/Indigo;  Ilustration via the British Museum.