Bricks and Flowers: An Anglo-Irish Memoir

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 gardening and building, mainly in England, but also in San Martino and in a large house outside Dublin during the Irish Civil War. This book also contains fascinating descriptions of some of Everett's many friends and acquaintances, including Oscar Wilde, George Moore, Augustus John, and Rodin. Everett was somewhat nomadic, living variously in British Columbia, Italy, Ireland (where she got involved in the Civil War) and various parts of England, but eventually found her m'tier as a house-builder and garden designer. She died in 1954