In each of the novel’s three time periods, the garden rooms at Highbury House function in different ways according to the needs and circumstances of the characters. For Venetia Smith, the gardens are a source of independence and creativity during an era when women had little recourse to either; for Diana and Beth, the gardens become a source of comfort and peace during a time of war; for Stella, the gardens represent an obstacle to her desire for escape class-based confines; and for Emma, the gardens symbolize a continuity between the past and her present, providing her with a source of stability.

Venetia works on the gardens’ design in 1907, during the Edwardian period, which followed the long reign of Queen Victoria. This brief period is known as an extension of the Victorian era, having similar preoccupations with propriety and class, and as a golden age before the social and political upheavals caused by World War I (1914-1918). During this period, the British Empire dominated the world stage through imperialism and colonization, which exploited the people and resources of countries in the Global South. Aimé Césaire discusses these dynamics in his 1955 work