If you thought for a moment that you would never need another book on Sissinghurst, well ... just think again.
In this new book, Sissinghurst: The Dream Garden
(Frances Lincoln, 2020), author Tim Richardson offers a fresh perspective and new insights into one of the most famous gardens in the world.
In a foreword to the book, landscape designer Dan Pearson says the relationship between Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicolson, the garden's designers, manifested itself in the garden, which he describes as "a blend of experimentation and daring, and a means of personal expression and partnership," ... a garden that's changed over the years, but with "a strong enough blueprint to have stood the test of time."
In the introduction to the book, author Richardson explains that neither Vita nor Harold were trained in horticulture or landscape design. The result was that Sissinghurst "was conceived in an intensely personal way -- with every planting decision by Vita, and every angle and vista designed by Harold, expressive of their innermost emotions, hopes, and desires."
Following their deaths, the garden was passed on to the National Trust, and over a series of years and various head gardeners, the garden was tidied up. "For some visitors," says Richardson, "the garden seemed to have lost something of the old Vita magic over the years." In the past several years, however, there's been a movement to bring back the garden's authenticity, and a more "relaxed and romantic" style. In the pages that follow, you'll discover the intellectual, historic, and literary elements that drove the creation of the garden. The book includes scores of beautiful photographs as well as garden and planting plans. If you want the definitive book about Sissinghurst, look no further than this.
As familiar as you may be with British gardens, you probably have not seen many of the ones featured in this new book, as some are only open one or perhaps a few days or months per year. In Secret Gardens of Somerset: A Private Tour
(Frances Lincoln, 2020), author Abigail Willis and photographer Clive Boursnell profile 20 gardens off the beaten track of most garden tours. There are modern gardens designed by Piet Oudolf and the American landscape design firm Oehme van Sweden, but most were designed by dedicated homeowners. Some of the gardens date back hundreds of years (including the Hobhouse garden), but of course these have now been renovated. As the author says in the introduction, gardeners asked to define Somerset's appeal responded that "It's unpretentious," ... "it's a working county, not a museum," ... "It's not been tidied up." Willis describes Midney Gardens in Somerton as "bracingly non-conformist," with a combination of "plantsmanship, flair for color and a quirky do-it-yourself ethos." The Newt in Somerset, now a hotel, is the historic Hadspen estate owned by the Hobhouse family and designed in the 1960s by the famed garden designer Penelope Hobhouse. The estate is now owned by a South African couple, who hired Italo-French architect Patrice Taravella to re-do the gardens. The new gardens were inspired by garden history and they include geometric baroque gardens, prairie-style grass borders, a restored Lime Avenue, and vistas reminiscent of an 18th century landscape park.
Essays on each garden's history and lovely photos accompany each entry. In the back of the book, there's contact information on each garden, and info on when they are open to the public.