Why read Bricks and Flowers?

Book cover of Bricks and Flowers

Book description

Originally published in 1949, this extraordinary memoir tells of the author's difficult upbringing in an Irish big house, where her mother brought her up on the Peerage and Anglo-Catholic theology. She was eventually rescued by an aunt and brought to England, where she studied art. Her subsequent career largely involved…

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Why read it?

1 author picked Bricks and Flowers as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Griselda Heppel

Author

This is a memoir published in 1948 by someone I'd never heard of. From the title I didn't expect much. That changed when it transpired that it referred to the author's extraordinary 'can-do' approach to earning a living after escaping penniless to England from her feckless Anglo-Irish family at the age of 18.
She begins by becoming an assistant to a brace of eccentric aunts, one of which, kind but utterly bonkers Aurelia, generates scenes of high comedy when she insists on joining her niece at the Slade art school and comes up against the legendary artist and teacher, Henry…

From Griselda's 3 favorite reads in 2025.