
A Garden Writer's Novel Bears Fruit
It's 1850 in Lancashire, England. The orphaned Scilla Brown is hungry and alone after the death of Dora, a lowlife who took her from the Ormskirk Workhouse to be her accomplice in petty crime. The memory of one bite of stolen peach haunts Scilla: 'Oh, that bite. What dreams were made of.' She sneaks into the local earl's garden one evening in search of more, crashing to earth when the espaliered cherry tree she has scampered up to make her getaway breaks free from the wall.
Enter Mr. Layton, the head gardener, with a beastly scar on his face and 'a voice of rusty nails, sharp with anger.' He collars Scilla, mistaking her for a boy because of her trousers and short hair. To her shock, rather than hauling her off to the magistrate he puts her to work scrubbing plant pots. Bolton Hall, the earl's estate, requires many hands to maintain. Soon Scilla has a new life as Seth Brown, garden boy.
'Brownie' gets plenty of food, a warm place to sleep, and the joshing fellowship of the bothy, the lodge where the garden staff gathers. She works hard, eager to stay as long as she can. Self-worth begins to sprout through the hard soil of experience.
Mr. Layton lends her gardening books, teaches her how to care for seedlings, and demonstrates how to pack delicate grapes and pears away for the winter. 'Plants need limits,' he tells her. 'As do people.' Nobody has seen value in her before, and she can't quite believe it. The head gardener looks fearsome, but 'behind his hardened scar' he's 'wick, full of life, like the stone of the peach itself.'
So is Mrs. Nandi, his Indian housekeeper, who carries her own scars and sees through 'Brownie' before anyone else does. (Mrs. Nandi's presence, along with the cultivation of exotics in the earl's garden, hints at the colonialism that built estates like Bolton Hall.)
Every garden is a secret garden, revealing wonders, if you know how to look. Smith, an author of garden books and the former editor of Country Home magazine, writes with a hands-in-the-dirt affinity for the rhythms and needs of growing things. 'The Peach Thief' bursts with sensory details: the sun-warmed velvet of a ripe peach, rhubarb plants with 'stalks red as rubies must be,' 'the hum of life' in the 'tiny scrap of green' of a cauliflower seedling.
Not even a perfect peach will satisfy the hunger for affection that gnaws at Scilla. She falls under the spell of Phineas Blake, a gardener-in-training who could charm the stars out of the sky. His smile makes Scilla feel as if the sun has 'shone right on her,' as if she's been 'cold all her life, craving sun,' and hasn't known it.
For someone who's never been wanted by anyone, the attention proves irresistible — and dangerous. Phin takes her on midnight raids of 'the glass-houses,' the greenhouses where the earl's precious fruit grows out of season, warmed by hot-water pipes. It's a betrayal of Mr. Layton's trust, but when Scilla tries to resist, 'that empty place inside her' starts 'begging away, as starved as ever.'
Every Eden hides a snake, and Scilla feels like the serpent in this paradise. Mr. Layton will surely cast her out when he discovers she's a thief and a liar. Tension mounts when Emily, Scilla's protector at the workhouse, gets hired as a housemaid and recognizes her old friend in front of Phin.
What will Scilla have to do to keep him quiet? One step too far and her new life will collapse like the tree she climbed down that first night.
Meanwhile, the garden staff works feverishly to prepare for a visit from Prince Albert, Queen Victoria's husband, who wants to inspect Mr. Layton's innovations in the garden and glass-houses. (It's the year before the Great Exhibition of 1851 and progress is in the air.) It's thrilling and terrifying to watch as Scilla builds an ever more precarious trellis of lies, digging for the courage to stand up to Phin and own the truth, no matter what it might cost her.
Smith uses 19th-century Lancashire dialect to give historical grit and texture to the way Scilla, Phin and the other workers talk. A grumpy cook is a 'meddling fussock,' a cracked flowerpot goes 'all to flinders,' fine weather makes for 'a gradely day' and whenever Scilla feels like a baby or a coward, which is often, she kicks herself for being a 'gawby.' The language measures the distance between mid-19th-century England and the here and now, but Scilla's desire to fit in and be loved is timeless. People, like plants, only want to find a place they can thrive.

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It's not just about symbolism — it's about economic justice and dignity,' he said via email. The backlash Prada faced 'wasn't just about a sandal,' Amed added. 'It was a broader reaction to a long history of erasure and under-acknowledgment.' Homegrown designers are helping to change things. Indian fashion is having a striking impact on red carpets worldwide — and not only on the backs of Bollywood stars. Western celebrities are increasingly embracing Indian designers, too. Cardi B wore a custom-made, electric blue, hooded sculptural gown by Gaurav Gupta to the 2023 Grammys, while Zendaya walked the carpet in a shimmering, hand-embroidered blue sari gown by Rahul Mishra at a high-profile event in Mumbai months earlier. Kim Kardashian, meanwhile, has worn designs by the likes of Manish Malhotra and Sabyasachi Mukherjee, who last year became the first Indian fashion designer to attend the exclusive Met Gala in New York. 'It's a powerful shift, almost like we're reclaiming our own narrative,' Gaurav Gupta told CNN. 'Designers from India are now presenting on the global stage not as 'ethnic' alternatives, but as innovators with our own language, our own shapes, our own ideologies. We're not adapting to fit in anymore; we're expressing to stand out.' For many Indians, the Kolhapuri chappals that Prada said it was 'inspired' by represent the ingenuity and artistry of Kolhapur, a historic city nestled in the country's western Maharashtra state. Typically crafted from locally sourced buffalo hide and tanned using traditional vegetable dyes, the sandals could effectively withstand the relentless heat and rugged terrain of the Deccan Plateau. The distinctive toe loop, which is attached to the T-strap, helped keep them close to the wearers' feet. Cutting across generational and social divides, the Kolhapuri chappal embodies both the enduring spirit of rural India and a bridge to contemporary fashion. The shoe is protected by a coveted 'geographical indication' tag — like the one ensuring Champagne is only produced in France's Champagne region — that, in theory, safeguards this symbol of Indian heritage from copycats. 'It's something truly Indian,' said Shubhika Sharma, the prominent Indian fashion designer and founder of the label Papa Don't Preach, in a video interview. Prada's initial failure to acknowledge the Indian artisans behind the design amounted to a 'missed opportunity for Indian craftsmanship,' Sharma added. About 10,000 artisan families in Kolhapur are engaged in the chappal trade, according to local media reports, though many of them struggle in poor conditions and earn low wages. In India, Kolhapuri chappals can retail for as little as $5 or as much as $100, depending on the quality of leather and level of craftsmanship. While Prada's sandals had not hit the market at the time of last month's controversy, the luxury fashion house's shoes typically retail at prices ranging from $700 to well over $2,000. For Sharma, 'everything just boils down to respect,' she said. 'Was due respect given to the creator, to the person who originated it, to the culture that originated it?' Some Western labels have proven better at engaging with Indian audiences than others. In 2023, Dior made headlines by hosting a landmark runway show at Mumbai's historic Gateway of India, unveiling a Pre-Fall collection that celebrated the subcontinent's artistry. The collection featured Banarasi brocade, mirror work, tie-dye detailing, Nehru collars and kurta tailoring — motifs deeply rooted in Indian tradition and craftsmanship. Many of the embroideries and textiles on the runway were made by the Mumbai atelier Chanakya International, which was credited for its role. The show was widely hailed as a respectful homage, with Vogue India's fashion director Anaita Shroff Adajania describing it as 'a thank you to India.' Amed, from The Business of Fashion, meanwhile, called the collaboration between Chanakya International and Maria Grazia Chiuri, then Dior's creative director, as 'thoughtful… not performative,' adding: 'Chiuri hasn't just sourced embroidery from India; she's spotlighted the artisans, acknowledged the lineage of the craft, and in doing so, helped shift perceptions of where luxury value is created.' Similarly, last month, Nike launched its first collaboration with an Indian fashion label, the Delhi-based brand NorBlack NorWhite, unveiling a vibrant range of sportswear inspired by ancient tie-dye techniques. The move was broadly celebrated by social media users in India, a country in which Nike has long struggled to make commercial inroads. For Diet Sabya's founder, however, much more must be done to ensure genuine recognition for Indian talent and traditions. 'When India is being eyed as the next big luxury market, you can't keep treating it like an exotic pitstop,' they said. 'While a few brands are finally acknowledging us as the global textile powerhouse we are — it's still crumbs. Visibility is a start. But equity is the end goal.'