Blooming Spoilsports

When Sam and Lily marry and enter their pensionable age, they find themselves in Orton Villas, a retirement home run by Sunshine Homes and in particular, the management team of Bradley and Olga. It is a toxic mix, as Sam and Lily are both headstrong horticulturalists and they have chosen Orton Villas because of its gardening potential, but for some reason, Bradley and Olga do not want the residents to work in the garden at all.Arthur Gardner's Blooming Spoil Sports recounts the story of Sam and Lily as they face off against the dictatorial regime put in place by Bradley and Olga. Despite winning several horticultural awards, one from the RHS, Sam and Lily are gradually denied access to Orton Villas' gardens. Only one team will win out; will it be Sam and Lily or the evil Bradley and Olga? And what will happen to the bingo machine?

Leading up to retirement, Arthur Gardner had many conversations with a close friend about what they would do. When it finally came to "What now?" the friend retorted, "For a start, there's your life story: war time evacuation, failed the 11 plus, 5-year apprenticeship, 2 years National Service, marriage, children, work, lifestyle change, the awful retirement experience and much, much more."

That spurred Arthur on to write over 70,000 words about the different stages of his life. At the age of 26, he changed careers; reading the Daily Mirror one day, the Telegraph the next. After many years in commerce, finally Arthur, leading up to retirement, spent some years as a self-employed landscape gardener. Leaning on his own experiences, in parallel with scripting his life story, Arthur has also penned this account of life in a fictitious retirement property.

The characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any apparent similarity to real persons is not intended by the author and is either a coincidence or the product of your own troubled imagination.