I grew up in two worlds. My physical world was a small tract house in an unremarkable street in Dallas where I lived with my dad, who often traveled for his job with the Texas Highway Department, and my mother, who stayed home with me. They had met toward the end of the Second World War when he was stationed in the south of England near where she lived. My mother was what many would call an English rose – pretty, young, fair, and loving. After the war, Dad returned to England and brought her home with him. I was born quite a few years later and grew up working the garden with my dad – he was quite proud of his tomatoes – instead of learning homemaking skills. Especially cooking – a glaring deficit in my upbringing, but my mother always said she could see how happy I was outdoors and didn’t see the point in dragging me away only to learn how to make toad-in-the-hole. Actually, I could’ve done a fair job at toad-in-the-hole, because it requires so little cooking skill.

Toad-in-the-hole, you say? It’s a British dish – brown a few sausage, beat up a Yorkshire pudding batter to pour on and bake the whole thing. Toad-in-the-hole, bubble-and-squeak, bangers and mash – when my mother cooked up an English supper (or “tea” as she often called it – even though it was an entire meal, not just a cup), I would be entertained with stories of her homeland.

And that was my other world. I grew up in my mother’s stories of England – the wildflowers in the hedgerows, the little robins so different from our American variety, pronouncing the last letter of the alphabet “zed” instead of “zee.” Tales of blazing fires in winter and summers wild and free in the meadows and woods. I knew a biscuit was a cookie and a jumper was a pullover sweater and “pull your socks up” had nothing to do with footwear, but rather meant I’d better improve my behavior and get to work.

I dreamed of England and drove my friends crazy with stories. I read Enid Blyton’s Famous Five book series – my mother had to special order them – and watched Hayley Mills movies. I pictured myself living in England, and occasionally, when I looked out the window in April, swore I could see my mother’s beech wood and a carpet of bluebells.

My mother died around my fiftieth birthday – my dad had died years before. That, and other events at the time, precipitated a life-changing moment. I quit my job at the Dallas Arboretum and moved to England. I didn’t go for a visit, I actually moved – because my mother was British, I could have dual citizenship and I took advantage of it. I landed in London and gave myself a year to find a job – a real job as a head gardener at a proper English garden. How hard could that be?

*A Potted History – A British term for a brief summary.

You can read more about Pru in Midsummer Mayhem, the seventh book in the “Potting Shed” mystery series.

Shakespeare comes to Hampshire—and Pru Parke is cast into the role of cunning detective gardener once again.

Pru’s friends and neighbors are abuzz with the news of an acting troupe putting on an outdoor performance of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”. And while many are eager to catch a glimpse of famed actor Ambrose Grant, Pru can’t wait to finally see the spectacular gardens of the private estate where the play will be performed. When the estate’s gardener abruptly quits—frustrated with actors trampling his beloved plants—Pru is called upon for her gardening expertise. She throws herself into creating magical woodland forest scenes, and is quickly drawn into the excitement of putting on a play, as she watches the drama on and off the stage. But the play’s suddenly no longer the thing, when one of the actors turns up murdered.

Pru’s husband, Detective Inspector Christopher Pearse, relies on Pru’s knowledge of all the players in this particular intrigue, and Pru finds herself using rehearsals to investigate. But playing the role of private eye could prove perilous for Pru, as she closes in on a murderer who won’t let anyone—least of all the gardener—keep him from stopping the show . . . dead.

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Meet the author
Best-selling author Marty Wingate shares her love of Britain in three mystery series, the Potting Shed books (Alibi), featuring Pru Parke, a middle-aged American gardener transplanted from Texas to England; Birds of a Feather (Alibi), following Julia Lanchester, bird lover, who runs a tourist office in a Suffolk village; and The First Edition Society (Berkley) about Hayley Burke, the curator of a collection of books from the Golden Age of Mystery (book #1 out in fall, 2019). Marty also leads garden tours to Britain, spending free moments deep in research for her books. Or in pubs.

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