Reviewed by Audrey Shipp
In the posthumously published autobiographical memoir Groundbreaking: My Unmapped Path as an Academic, Mother, and Gardener (New Village Press; May 2026) by landscape architect and educator Clare Cooper Marcus, the blasting of the ground caused by bombs in World War II spurs the breaking of ground to grow food and other plants.
Clare Cooper Marcus is five years old in 1940 when Nazi Germany initiates the Blitz and begins targeting bombs on her birth city of London, England. The war propels her father to abandon his job at Rothschild Bank, volunteer for the army, and leave his wife, young Clare, and her brother behind. The banker Rothschild, in turn, invites mom and the kids and other families to live on his Ascott estate in Buckinghamshire, outside central London.
War is upheaval, chaos, and death. Not only is the father figure away in Italy (where he is unfaithful to his wife), but the family left behind must endure the daily struggles of violent confrontation. Clare, her mom, and her brother take cover during bomb raids, bear witness to convoys and tanks passing by, and view soldiers training on the grounds at Ascott. War is deprivation. Thus, the blackouts and the rationing of necessities, including food. Due to food shortages, Rothschild orders the people sheltering on his estate to grow produce. The child Clare then realizes her playground in verdant natural surroundings is not only an inspirational and relaxing oasis, but also a source of food. The Ascott gardens are pivotal in Clare’s development of a love for nature and gardens. And by the time the family leaves in 1945, her admiration is boundless.
As a young adult, nature inspires Clare to study Cultural and Historical Geography at University College London. Passionate about travel and foreign opportunities, she accepts a teaching assistantship at the University of Nebraska and visits the United States for the first time. A brief return to England is followed by an assistantship at UC Berkeley—the city that will become her home base for the rest of her lifetime.
The year is 1961, and young people in the city who are part of a burgeoning counterculture are adamant about the Vietnam and Free-Speech movements. A newly arrived Clare focuses not only on her assistantship; she also pursues a second master’s in Berkeley’s Program in City and Regional Planning. Years later, as a professor, she will give an assignment to her students that foreshadows the creation of her own Groundbreaking memoir—she has them write an environmental autobiography.
Devotion to family is as prevalent in this memoir as a love for nature. And far away from her close relatives in England, family life blossoms when Clare begins a relationship with Stephen, one of her students who is a few years younger than her. She discloses their unplanned pregnancy to her partner who is reluctant to commit to the demands of fatherhood. Once their first child is born, he is a happy father for a while. And in a surprising turn of events, Stephen makes a revelation following the birth of their second child that brings their marriage to a screeching halt. Following this familial crisis, Clare is left with the Berkeley home they bought together and its huge backyard beckoning her to garden.
The author shares the richness of her gardening journey by arranging this text as a hybrid memoir. The book has twenty-eight chapters, and beginning with Chapter Four, she includes a reflection on gardening after each narrative chapter. These “Garden Stories” weave through the memoir like a green vine offering a wealth of thoughts on the Berkeley garden and pulling the reader through the narrative. They are distinguished not only by their structural separation from the chapters making up the narrative arc of the autobiography, but by their italic font as well.
Readers will find many aspects of this book memorable and touching. Something that stands out to me is how grounded the writer is in her identity. For example, when she studies during her youth at University College London, she takes courses on the Anglo-Saxons, Vikings, Romans, and Norman-French. And once she moves to the U.S., she is constantly nourishing her connection to her homeland. In 1970, she returns to England to hike for many days and reconnect with her roots. In 1983, she does a sabbatical in Scotland and takes her two kids along with her. After retirement, she’s off to Scotland again for an entire year. And following the death of her eldest brother, she returns to England determined to walk the length of the entire country. She is equally conscientious in Berkeley where she acknowledges that she is living on land stolen from Indigenous tribes. In other words, her deep respect for and connection to the earth give her a remarkable sense of authenticity.
Reflecting on the different roles she played during her life, she acknowledges her multiplicity as a woman:
“There is childhood-me finding solace in nature. There is me in my twenties coming to America. There is young academic-me, starting a teaching career. There is the wife of Stephen, mother of Cooper and Lucy. But the one I recognize most is gardener-me because she connects us all. She has always been there and always will be. She is me, from childhood in England to octogenarian years in Berkeley. Composting takes all the parts, mixes them together, and over time, creates a medium for new, healthy growth. The women blend and merge into someone I now recognize.”
Even after her retirement from UC Berkeley, Clare will continue groundbreaking. Despite multiple serious health scares, and possibly inspired by her many hospital stays, she helps plan restorative garden designs for hospitals. And she visits California prisons and assists in the design of their recreational gardens.
Deceased in January of 2026, Clare Cooper Marcus was forever grounded in family, profession, and her English identity; she remained a green card holder until 2008. It was her determination to acknowledge a rotation in the trajectory of U.S. political history that prompted her to become a citizen so she could, as she states, vote for the Illinois U.S. Senator who would become President.
Audrey Shipp is an AWP Writer to Writer mentee and a PEN America Emerging Voices Workshop LA honoree whose hybrid memoir When I Was a Bilingual Writer Birthed by Black L.A. will be published by Unsolicited Press in 2027. She is the author of the poetry collection Poetry, Poesía, Poésie in AfroDiaspora. Her writing has been published in various literary journals including Good River Review, Brittle Paper, Litro USA, A Gathering Together, and Américas Review. She has English degrees from both UCLA and Cal State LA. Her professional life has been dedicated to teaching English and ESL in public high schools in Los Angeles. Find her at audreyshipp.net.
