In 1897, French naturalist and artist Claude Moreau began documenting the extraordinary events in his grandmother's garden, where scholarly mice debated proper tea service in a library housed within an ancient teapot, frost spirits danced with morning glories, and even the most ordinary moments contained their own kind of magic. His detailed journals, filled with meticulous observations and delicate watercolors, were originally published as a series of whimsical tales in Parisian magazines before being collected into "The Books of the Garden" in 1923.
Following their success, Moreau embarked on a grand tour of Europe's great gardens in 1924, secretly accompanied by his mouse associates Mr. Thistledown, Pip, and Primrose. While he navigated human literary circles, they explored mouse societies in places like Monet's Giverny, the Alhambra, and the winter gardens of St. Petersburg. These travels resulted in "A Year Abroad," published shortly before his death in 1925.
Though largely forgotten during the turbulent decades that followed, Moreau's stories found new life in the 1960s when his great-niece discovered his original journals in a Provence attic. Their gentle magic and celebration of wonder in ordinary moments resonated with a new generation seeking enchantment in everyday life. Today, his tales continue to remind us that the most extraordinary magic often grows wild in quiet places, tended by those who believe in small wonders and large hearts.
This Substack carries on that tradition, offering new stories from the Garden where memories can be bottled like summer preserves, books sometimes edit themselves when no one is looking, and there's always time for a properly brewed cup of tea.
