I choose to review these two books as both were ones I was very interested in and hope you will be too. I have been sent the following books to review, I have not paid for them but my words and opinions are my own.
This book was originally published in hardback in 2018 and I kept meaning to buy it. So when I was offered a copy of the new paperback version to review I was not going to say no. This is a book covering 450 years of British gardening and it is a comprehensive and enjoyable read. The book is in chronological order and includes many names you will know and also, I am sure, some you will not. You would expect to see Humphrey Repton and Capability Brown and should rightly tut at any such book with such a title that did not include them. I will always enjoy any gardening book that includes John and Jane Loudon so it was delight to find them included. There were also people in this book I had not heard of such as William Andrews Nesfield and Philip Miller and it was fascinating learning about them. I should have known about Nesfield as I have been to one of his works: Witley Court. I always like a book that makes me kick myself a bit where I should have known something.
The book is arranged into sections and with headings such as 'The Early Plantsmen' 'The Flower Garden' 'Classical and Modern' to group the gardeners written about. It is good to see Rosemary Verey, and Penelope Hobhouse included, both personal favourites of mine. Any such book is of course a selection and many people could be included who are not; I noted that only two of the gardeners written about are still living and I did wonder about the criteria for how you decide who is 'great'. We could all create our own lists and it would be interesting to compare them. I paused a moment when reading this book and reflected on how white our gardening history is when written about and that our current and future is happily more diverse.
I am so glad I now have this book, it is a fantastic book to dip into and is a rich source of information. It is the sort of book anyone would love to have as a gift or one to buy for yourself as a treat.
Great British Gardeners by Vanessa Berridge is published by Amberley Publishing and will be available as a paperback from April 15th 2021
