The English Garden
The English Garden The English garden is admired around the world and anybody who wishes to gain an insight and understanding of these gardens will be well served by reading this updated edition of Ursula Buchan’s, The English Garden. It is possibly the most comprehensive, yet concise, treatment of the topic that I have read. […]
What does one say, Mr. Shakespeare?
Over one million people visit Shakespeare’s birthplace in Stratford-on-Avon each year despite the not too often mentioned fact that the house was demolished in the mid-nineteenth century by the then owner as he was tired of the people who called to see it. They continue to come, especially on the 400th anniversary of his death, […]
Gardens of the Italian Lakes
Gardens of the Italian Lakes by Steven Desmond with photographs by Marianne Majerus. The gardens of Lake Como and Lake Maggiore in the north of Italy are among the most dramatic and beautiful one could visit. With this new book to hand the visitor’s experience will be all the more enjoyable. Thanks to today’s transport […]
First Ladies of Gardening: Pioneer, Designers and Dreamers by Heidi Howcroft with Photographs by Marianne Majerus – A Review.
This has been one of the most delightful and enjoyable books I have read in quite a while. Marianne Majerus’ photographs are immediately captivating and this lead to my having to wait until my wife had read the book before I could have the pleasure. It was worth the wait and if you too wish […]
The Irish Garden by Jane Powers and Jonathan Hession, A Review
In a combination of lusciously delicious text and exquisite photography, Jane Powers and Jonathan Hession have produced the most wonderful and delightful book on Irish gardens. Although there was a short interlude when Jane spent some years of childhood in America she is truly an Irish woman as she has spent most of her life […]
Secret Gardens of the Cotswords – A Review.
What is most striking about this book is the wonderful number of beautiful gardens there are within the small area of the Cotswolds and that this is matched by glorious photography and delightful text used to present them to us. Twenty gardens, all within the circle of Cheltenham, Banbury, Oxford, Cirencester and Stroud, are described […]
Authors and their Gardens by Paddy Tobin
A review of A Writer’s Garden: How Gardens Inspired Our Best-Loved Authors, by Jackie Bennett, with photographs by Richard Hanson – descriptions of nineteen gardens with the added interest of information on the authors who gardened in them. For some of the authors in this book their garden was a place which provided inspiration – […]
Royal Horticultural Society: The Garden Anthology – edited by Ursula Buchan.
The Royal Horticultural Society was founded in 1804 with aims “to collect every information respecting the culture and treatment of all plants and trees” and to disseminate this information to it members. How this information was disseminated has changed but little over the course of the society’s history from “The Transactions of the Horticultural Society […]
The Splendour of the Tree by Noel Kingsbury. Photography by Andrea Jones.
This book could well be compared to a box of the most luxurious and delicious liqueur chocolates. It presents 100 tree species with each account so rich in information, so interesting in content and so delightful in illustration that it is better to approach reading the book as one would the box of chocolates – […]
The Irish Garden – Jane Powers and Jonathan Hession
Jane Powers’ new book, with husband photographer Jonathan Hession, The Irish Garden, will be published next April. With 400 pages and describing approximately 60 gardens it will be the biggest treatment of Irish gardens in 15 years. We are familiar with Jane’s writing from her years with the Irish Times, now with The Sunday Times […]
