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Voices In The Garden
The fabulous but wavering old Lady “Cuckoo” Peverill, lives with her husband, Napoleon-mad military historian, Archie. Dissatisfied and overcome by sheer boredom, she ventures down to the lake at the edge of their estate, pockets filled with stones, she begins to walk into the water. Before she is too deeply submerged, she is pulled away by sparsely-clothed drifter, Marcus Pollock.
Feigning that he merely saved her from an 'accident', he is brought back to the villa, where he moves in. Cue the arrival of Marcus' girlfriend, as well as a whole horde of eccentric film-makers and you have the stage set for an effortlessly entertaining story. Set in Cap Ferrat, in one of the last great villas of the twenties, Voices in the Garden is a heart-felt tale of mature and immature love. [From google books description.]
Feigning that he merely saved her from an 'accident', he is brought back to the villa, where he moves in. Cue the arrival of Marcus' girlfriend, as well as a whole horde of eccentric film-makers and you have the stage set for an effortlessly entertaining story. Set in Cap Ferrat, in one of the last great villas of the twenties, Voices in the Garden is a heart-felt tale of mature and immature love. [From google books description.]
- GenresFiction
351 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1983
1 person is currently reading
53 people want to read
About the author
Dirk Bogarde
37 books29 followersDirk Jules Gaspard Ulric Niven van den Bogaerde was born of mixed Flemish, Dutch and Scottish ancestry, and baptised on 30 October 1921 at St. Mary's Church, Kilburn. His father, Ulric van den Bogaerde (born in Perry Barr, Birmingham; 1892–1972), was the art editor of The Times and his mother, Margaret Niven (1898–1980), was a former actress. He attended University College School, the former Allan Glen's School in Glasgow (a time he described in his autobiography as unhappy, although others have disputed his account) and later studied at the Chelsea College of Art and Design. He began his acting career on stage in 1939, shortly before the start of World War II.
Bogarde served in World War II, being commissioned into the Queen's Royal Regiment in 1943. He reached the rank of captain and served in both the European and Pacific theatres, principally as an intelligence officer. Taylor Downing's book "Spies in the Sky" tells of his work with a specialist unit interpreting aerial photo-reconnaissance information, before moving to Normandy with Canadian forces. Bogarde claimed to have been one of the first Allied officers in April 1945 to reach the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany, an experience that had the most profound effect on him and about which he found it difficult to speak for many years afterward. As John Carey has summed up with regard to John Coldstream's authorised biography however, "it is virtually impossible that he (Bogarde) saw Belsen or any other camp. Things he overheard or read seem to have entered his imagination and been mistaken for lived experience." Coldstream's analysis seems to conclude that this was indeed the case. Nonetheless, the horror and revulsion at the cruelty and inhumanity that he claimed to have witnessed still left him with a deep-seated hostility towards Germany; in the late-1980s he wrote that he would disembark from a lift rather than ride with a German of his generation. Nevertheless, three of his more memorable film roles were as Germans, one of them as a former SS officer in 'The Night Porter'.
Bogarde's London West End theatre-acting debut was in 1939, with the stage name 'Derek Bogaerde', in J. B. Priestley's play Cornelius. After the war his agent renamed him 'Dirk Bogarde' and his good looks helped him begin a career as a film actor, contracted to The Rank Organisation under the wing of the prolific independent film producer Betty Box, who produced most of his early films and was instrumental in creating his matinée idol image.
During the 1950s, Bogarde came to prominence playing a hoodlum who shoots and kills a police constable in The Blue Lamp (1950) co-starring Jack Warner and Bernard Lee; a handsome artist who comes to rescue of Jean Simmons during the World's Fair in Paris in So Long at the Fair, a film noir thriller; an accidental murderer who befriends a young boy played by Jon Whiteley in Hunted (aka The Stranger in Between) (1952); in Appointment in London (1953) as a young wing commander in Bomber Command who, against orders, opts to fly his 90th mission with his men in a major air offensive against the Germans; an unjustly imprisoned man who regains hope in clearing his name when he learns his sweetheart, Mai Zetterling, is still alive in Desperate Moment (1953); Doctor in the House (1954), as a medical student, in a film that made Bogarde one of the most popular British stars of the 1950s, and co-starring Kenneth More, Donald Sinden and James Robertson Justice as their crabby mentor; The Sleeping Tiger (1954), playing a neurotic criminal with co-star Alexis Smith, and Bogarde's first film for American expatriate director Joseph Losey; Doctor at Sea (1955), co-starring Brigitte Bardot in one of her first film roles.
Bogarde continued acting until 1990. 'Daddy Nostalgie' was his final film.
Bogarde served in World War II, being commissioned into the Queen's Royal Regiment in 1943. He reached the rank of captain and served in both the European and Pacific theatres, principally as an intelligence officer. Taylor Downing's book "Spies in the Sky" tells of his work with a specialist unit interpreting aerial photo-reconnaissance information, before moving to Normandy with Canadian forces. Bogarde claimed to have been one of the first Allied officers in April 1945 to reach the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany, an experience that had the most profound effect on him and about which he found it difficult to speak for many years afterward. As John Carey has summed up with regard to John Coldstream's authorised biography however, "it is virtually impossible that he (Bogarde) saw Belsen or any other camp. Things he overheard or read seem to have entered his imagination and been mistaken for lived experience." Coldstream's analysis seems to conclude that this was indeed the case. Nonetheless, the horror and revulsion at the cruelty and inhumanity that he claimed to have witnessed still left him with a deep-seated hostility towards Germany; in the late-1980s he wrote that he would disembark from a lift rather than ride with a German of his generation. Nevertheless, three of his more memorable film roles were as Germans, one of them as a former SS officer in 'The Night Porter'.
Bogarde's London West End theatre-acting debut was in 1939, with the stage name 'Derek Bogaerde', in J. B. Priestley's play Cornelius. After the war his agent renamed him 'Dirk Bogarde' and his good looks helped him begin a career as a film actor, contracted to The Rank Organisation under the wing of the prolific independent film producer Betty Box, who produced most of his early films and was instrumental in creating his matinée idol image.
During the 1950s, Bogarde came to prominence playing a hoodlum who shoots and kills a police constable in The Blue Lamp (1950) co-starring Jack Warner and Bernard Lee; a handsome artist who comes to rescue of Jean Simmons during the World's Fair in Paris in So Long at the Fair, a film noir thriller; an accidental murderer who befriends a young boy played by Jon Whiteley in Hunted (aka The Stranger in Between) (1952); in Appointment in London (1953) as a young wing commander in Bomber Command who, against orders, opts to fly his 90th mission with his men in a major air offensive against the Germans; an unjustly imprisoned man who regains hope in clearing his name when he learns his sweetheart, Mai Zetterling, is still alive in Desperate Moment (1953); Doctor in the House (1954), as a medical student, in a film that made Bogarde one of the most popular British stars of the 1950s, and co-starring Kenneth More, Donald Sinden and James Robertson Justice as their crabby mentor; The Sleeping Tiger (1954), playing a neurotic criminal with co-star Alexis Smith, and Bogarde's first film for American expatriate director Joseph Losey; Doctor at Sea (1955), co-starring Brigitte Bardot in one of her first film roles.
Bogarde continued acting until 1990. 'Daddy Nostalgie' was his final film.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
September 30, 2015
A pleasant, quiet book with some wonderful descriptions and the touch of the master draftsman of words that Bogarde was, always sure to know where a few coarse strokes are enough and where to add just the right amount of detail. I particularly liked how he manages to make Leni "sound" German just by her sentence structure, with no need to resort to silly pronunciation spelling. The plot structure suffers a bit from too much flashback and self-reflection of the characters, though. As so often in Bogarde's books, sexual corruption plays an important role, but does not take centre-stage here. It was published in 1981 and reflects the late 70s quite vividly, although for me, somehow, that also aged the book considerably.
March 20, 2008
I loved this little book. It is the sort of book that starts out with you thinking it will be one kind of book and ends up being much nicer than you thought it could possibly end up being. I don't want to spoil it. Some books are all very clever, some are too clever, some shock - but others just feel right and although they acknowledge that there is jucky stuff that happens in the world, the yucky stuff doesn't always win out.
Also love and affection are much more interesting things than we often think, with a much broader range of possible manifestations.
I only knew he was an actor before this book, it is very well written and enough to make me want to spend some time in the South of France.
Also love and affection are much more interesting things than we often think, with a much broader range of possible manifestations.
I only knew he was an actor before this book, it is very well written and enough to make me want to spend some time in the South of France.
August 13, 2015
A wonderful read! Very nostalgic of Britain between the wars, a great cast of characters of all ages.
February 22, 2025
In his lifetime Sir Dirk Bogarde was an actor, artist, memoirist and novelist. He was an Englishman, but lived for many years in France.
He was a gay man who spent the first half of his film career as a handsome romantic leading man. Not so much a man of contradictions as someone who pretended to be someone he wasn’t. Pretending is at the heart of this pleasant, amusing but undemanding novel; pretending and guarding secrets.
The story focusses on identity, the one you have and the one you might create. It is about acquiring a mask to protect yourself from discovery, to escape your past or your heritage.
There’s the handsome lad who escapes his dysfunctional home where his parents entertain delusions about their theatrical talent. Moving to the big city his work is to pretend to be figures of enticement in saucy photos. His German girlfriend is the biggest pretender of all, denying her heritage, her lofty station in life, almost her country, in an effort to deny her aristocracy and upbringing. This is an effort that ultimately proves too much for her to maintain.
This pair is pampered by an elderly English couple who represent displacement. One of them has at least two secrets, which seriously affects their behaviour. These expatriates are long-time resident in the south of France, but remain resolutely English. Their villa provides the stage for most of the goings on, the most hilarious of which centre on a vacuous, voluptuous and voracious film star of limited English and less brain and an Italian film director with an oversized yacht, who is more Benito Mussolini than Federico Fellini. I wondered who he might be based on, but I hope he is just an amalgam of the worst characteristics of directors Bogarde knew.
Quite diverting in an old fashioned way.
He was a gay man who spent the first half of his film career as a handsome romantic leading man. Not so much a man of contradictions as someone who pretended to be someone he wasn’t. Pretending is at the heart of this pleasant, amusing but undemanding novel; pretending and guarding secrets.
The story focusses on identity, the one you have and the one you might create. It is about acquiring a mask to protect yourself from discovery, to escape your past or your heritage.
There’s the handsome lad who escapes his dysfunctional home where his parents entertain delusions about their theatrical talent. Moving to the big city his work is to pretend to be figures of enticement in saucy photos. His German girlfriend is the biggest pretender of all, denying her heritage, her lofty station in life, almost her country, in an effort to deny her aristocracy and upbringing. This is an effort that ultimately proves too much for her to maintain.
This pair is pampered by an elderly English couple who represent displacement. One of them has at least two secrets, which seriously affects their behaviour. These expatriates are long-time resident in the south of France, but remain resolutely English. Their villa provides the stage for most of the goings on, the most hilarious of which centre on a vacuous, voluptuous and voracious film star of limited English and less brain and an Italian film director with an oversized yacht, who is more Benito Mussolini than Federico Fellini. I wondered who he might be based on, but I hope he is just an amalgam of the worst characteristics of directors Bogarde knew.
Quite diverting in an old fashioned way.
May 4, 2018
Easy reading. Compelling. Charming. I expected it to bite but it didn’t. It radiated. What an enjoyable book.
February 19, 2025
LGBT-friendly. VERY LGBT-friendly. TOO LGBT-friendly.
Lots of talk about flowers, if my memory serves me.
Lots of talk about flowers, if my memory serves me.
November 2, 2025
This was the first Dirk Bogarde novel I have read and I was really disappointed.
I've thoroughly enjoyed his autobiographies but this work of fiction just didn't grab me.
I've thoroughly enjoyed his autobiographies but this work of fiction just didn't grab me.
December 27, 2019
A satirical look at a motley cast of characters who end up on the Riviera after WWII. Lady Peverill (affectionately known as Cuckoo) and her husband, the Napoleon biographer Charles Peverill (Archie) spend time at a villa overlooking the Mediterranean. Leni, a cabaret crooner, trying to distance herself away from her German heritage; and Marcus, a young lad who had worked as a model for publications of a dubious nature, had been living in London but decide to take a trip to the South of France. Later in the book we learn about Grottorosso, who is making a film about Napoleon's son, L'Aignon, and is to meet Archie to discuss the film's historical accuracy. These characters cross paths (in some cases literally) perchance, and how they interact over the course of a couple of days is basically what happens in the book.
It's tough to get used to the writing style at first, as Bogarde doesn't always provide context for what he is writing about. But once you get accustomed to what's going on, then the text flows rather quickly. The characters don't seem altogether well developed, but they are certainly colorful.
Most of the writing is dialogue; for a novel to work it would have been more helpful if Bogarde could provide some more introspection. It makes sense though: Bogarde made his career as a film actor, and perhaps dialogue was what he was most comfortable with. Each time I've read a novel by a screenwriter or actor, I've felt the same way.
It's tough to get used to the writing style at first, as Bogarde doesn't always provide context for what he is writing about. But once you get accustomed to what's going on, then the text flows rather quickly. The characters don't seem altogether well developed, but they are certainly colorful.
Most of the writing is dialogue; for a novel to work it would have been more helpful if Bogarde could provide some more introspection. It makes sense though: Bogarde made his career as a film actor, and perhaps dialogue was what he was most comfortable with. Each time I've read a novel by a screenwriter or actor, I've felt the same way.
July 20, 2021
Stopped reading at page around page 55. Call me intellectually limited, but there are a lot of good books out there that gets priority over books about men posing in front of a camera.
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September 6, 2010bot
Read
August 6, 2012i don't know it was like shit, i didn't like it so it was waste of time .
December 14, 2016
Beautifully written story
January 2, 2017
As usual, an excellent read.
April 19, 2020
3.5
All in all it is a decent read.
All in all it is a decent read.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews