Sofka Zinovieff will speak about the varied gardens that have been significant in her life and writing. These reflect her many years in Greece, as described in Eurydice Street: A Place in Athens and the extraordinary and eccentric Oxfordshire garden she inherited and later wrote about in The Mad Boy, Lord Berners, My Grandmother and Me. Travelling to Russia to research her grandmother’s life for
Red Princess: A Revolutionary Life, Sofka discovered a paradise on the Crimean shores of the Black Sea. And finally, her own childhood garden by the Thames is the model for a fictionalised version in her forthcoming novel Putney – an explosive and thought-provoking story of a 13-year-old girl who falls in love with an older man and the fall-out, decades later, from their affair.
Sofka Zinovieff
Sofka was born in London, went to university in Cambridge, and has lived in Moscow, Rome and Athens. She is the author of five books and has written for various British publications including The Telegraph Magazine, The Financial Times, the Times Literary Supplement, and The Spectator. She is married, has two daughters and divides her time between England and Greece.
The Garden Museum Literary Festival
Begun in 2013, the world’s only festival dedicated to writing inspired by gardens has travelled from garden to garden across Britain, but this year – for one time only – will take place in London, to celebrate the reopened Museum and our new gardens and café. Chefs from our lauded new restaurant will also be creating a special menu for the weekend for guests to savour.
As the Festival will be in London, we are taking what makes its green spaces unique as our overarching theme this year.
Find out more about the programme for the weekend and book your tickets