1932: When gardener Robert Bardsley arrives at Anderby Hall, an Elizabethan manor house in the Gloucestershire countryside, it is home to Greenfields, a community of artists and idealists.
Robert has been employed to revive Anderby’s famous roses and restore the topiary garden, but he also soon befriends the other residents: from colourful neighbour Trudie, who makes a formidable cocktail and keeps her late-fiancé’s ashes on the mantelpiece, to composer Daniel, recovering from the horrors of the Great War.
The only person he can’t win over is Anderby’s schoolteacher, Faye, who finds him perfectly vexing.
But just as Robert starts to feel at home, the residents discover that the old orchard has been sold to a property developer who has plans for an estate of Tudorbethan bungalows.
Can they find a way to keep their creative community alive or will the new housing development put an end to the spirit of Greenfields?
The Best of Intentions by Caroline Scott is published on 17 July, 2025.
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