Please help me remember the title of this book.

[Firstnamelastname123]

A book my mum had in the 90s.

Starts in modern times with an elderly lady who is having one last walk around her garden before her house is sold. Then the story flashes back in time to the people (inc one named Fritha?) who owned that plot of land 1000ish years ago and who cleared the woodland to create the garden. It follows their lives for a chapter then back to the present. It then flashes back in time to follow the story of the next generation of occupiers of the land, each chapter then jumping forwards in time. One chapter includes a girl who lives in a convent on the site when the plague arrives in the village, I think she’s called Agnes.

I really want to read it again as it reminds me of my DM who has now passed away, but I just can’t remember the title.

Could it be In the Heart of the Garden by Helene Wiggin (writing as Leah Fleming)?

Is it The Garden by Nicholas Shakespeare?!

If so, full credit to Copilot 😂🤩

Yes! Thank you so much 😊

Aaagggghhhhh!!!! My faith in AI is shaken!

This is what Copilot said:

Based on your description, the book you're thinking of is likely The Garden by Nicholas Shakespeare.
🌿 Here's why it fits:
It begins with an elderly woman walking through her garden before the house is sold.
The story then moves backward through time, exploring the lives of previous inhabitants of the land.
It includes characters named Fritha and Agnes, with Agnes appearing in a chapter set during the plague when the land was occupied by a convent.
Each chapter jumps forward through history, tracing the evolution of the garden and the people connected to it.

I wonder if Helen Wiggin has a case for plagiarism 🤔😳😂

Co-pilot is confused! I don't think Nicholas Shakespeare has written a book called The Garden, whether featuring those characters/that plot or not.

I must admit, my search for it on Amazon yielded no results.

My faith in AI has taken a proper battering now 😞

@Beachtastic off topic but it's interesting that it got the details right (or quoted back at you what you'd asked it) but misattributed the author. Why Nicholas Shakespeare.

I have no idea! Mad, isn't it!

There must be something in the public realm that overlaps in some odd way.

Leah Fleming.

Nicholas Shakespeare wrote a book about Ian Fleming.

There's the link - the name Fleming.

🤯

That's the last time I ask Copilot for help with anything.

(I wish that was true BTW)

Seems like AI might have a way to go...

I was talking to someone who works in a bookshop the other day though, and they told me that people can now feed someone's novel into AI, ask it to re-write it in a slightly different style and change a few details, and boom! A new novel, and the person who used AI to plagiarise the original can go right ahead and publish it online.

I have absolutely no faith in AI to get things right. Here's an example. Last week I was searching for information on a journey I have taken dozens and dozens of times in the last few years, London to the Island of Arran. I wanted to try to get information about the ferry position later in the summer. I was so surprised by what came up I took a screenshot. It will take a few seconds for this to get through the MN image checking process, but when it does you will see that Google is telling me

• several train operators operate on the West Coast Main Line - no they don't, there's only Avanti.
• from Glasgow to get to Arran I should travel to Ardrossan - not during the current ferry debacle! It's Troon most of the time.
• 'Several ferry operators run services between Ardrossan and Brodick' - no! not since the 19th century. Only Calmac operate ferries to Arran.

I knew this was rubbish. Somebody searching this for the first time could have been seriously inconvenienced.

Oh dear 🤡

A case of what it doesn't know, it makes up. Still - tabloid journalists have been doing that and getting away with it for years.

Yes, but we all know they do that! People are talking about AI as if it's infallible and will replace lots of humans because it's so reliable.

Sorry for the thread hijack OP, but you got your answer, so hopefully job done and we can just arse around now 🌞

I quite like AI for simplifying what would have been multiple searches (for work, to verify usage of language in particular contexts).

This is a brutal reminder that you can only trust it so far, though!

Side note to say if you enjoyed this as a premise you might enjoy Number 25 Library Terrace. I just finished it and seems to have similar themes

Thank you. I’ll check it out.

It is a worry, isn't it? I have a (very niche and outing😂) hobby, and occasionally I will do a search online for something specific and technical to do with that hobby. Time after time, AI pops right up and suggests a heap of utter drivel, made up from basic information trawled from wherever.

Similar to maybe searching for botanical data on an extremely unusual orchid variety that I suspect needs specialised care, and AI provides simplified care details for your ordinary everyday orchid from the supermarket, but includes the name of the unusual one in the description.

If you didn't know it had to be wrong, you wouldn't know it was wrong if you get my drift, and you'd take it at face value.