Bricks and Flowers

Katherine Everett

• Publisher: Rare Treasure Editions
• Year: 2026
• eBook ISBN:
  9798907971998
• Topic: Art
• Subtopic: Residential Architecture

''Bricks and Flowers'' is a remarkable 1949 Anglo-Irish memoir written by Katherine Everett. The book chronicles her fascinating, unconventional life transitioning from a restrictive aristocratic upbringing to becoming a pioneering female building contractor and landscape designer in the early-to-mid 20th century. Born into the Anglo-Irish gentry in the 1870s at Cahernane House in Killarney, Ireland, Everett was raised by a deeply troubled, abusive mother. She eventually escaped to Britain as a teenager with the help of an aunt and went on to study art. After her husband abandoned her and their two sons at the start of World War I, Everett had to find independent means to support her family. She broke gender barriers by working as a professional house builder and garden designer, taking on major commissions throughout England, Ireland, and Italy. The memoir covers her nomadic travels—including a stint in British Columbia, Canada—and her eyewitness experiences during the Irish Civil War, during which she took a harrowing bicycle ride through rebel-held territory. Reflecting her vibrant life, the book details her interactions with prominent historical and cultural figures such as Oscar Wilde, Auguste Rodin, George Moore, and Augustus John. In recent years, literary historians have revisited ''Bricks and Flowers'' to explore the subtexts of unconventionality in Everett's life-writing, noting that she lived with and dedicated her memoir to her close companion, Ina Jephson.

Table of contents

• Chapter One MY FAMILY
• Chapter Two OUR HOME
• Chapter Three RETAINERS
• Chapter Four ESCAPE
• Chapter Five STAUNTON HAROLD
• Chapter Six INTRODUCTION TO AURELIA
• Chapter Seven WITH AURELIA
• Chapter Eight THE SLADE SCHOOL
• Chapter Nine BRITISH COLUMBIA
• Chapter Ten MARRIAGE
• Chapter Eleven HONEYMOON AT SEA
• Chapter Twelve AURELIA AGAIN
• Chapter Thirteen DORSET
• Chapter Fourteen PAINTERS
• Chapter Fifteen BECOMING A BUILDER
• Chapter Sixteen NURSING
• Chapter Seventeen GARDENER COMPANION
• Chapter Eighteen LIFE IN IRELAND
• Chapter Nineteen WAR IN IRELAND
• Chapter Twenty OLIVE ARDILAUN
• Chapter Twenty-one ITALY
• Chapter Twenty-two RESTORING SAN MARTINO
• Chapter Twenty-three LIFE NEAR FLORENCE
• Chapter Twenty-four JOURNEY TO ENGLAND
• Chapter Twenty-five MUMPUMPS
• Chapter Twenty-six BUILDING AND RESTORING
• Chapter Twenty-seven GARDENING
• Chapter Twenty-eight ROUGHFIELD AND AN ECHO OF AURELIA
• Chapter Twenty-nine ARTISTS AND OTHERS I HAVE KNOWN
• Chapter Thirty WAR YEARS
• Chapter Thirty-one VISIONS OR HALLUCINATIONS?
• Chapter Thirty-two CONCLUSION