From Homer to Tom Stoppard, writers whose direct concern with gardening may only be slight, find themselves deeply involved with particular, maybe imaginary gardens. Thus gardens turn up in the most surprising contexts, from 10th century Japan to the more familiar world of 19th and 20th century English literature.

Gardens are used as settings, they are contemplated and described, they are engaged with metaphorically, and they are employed as emotional registers by authors as various as Goethe and Jerome K Jerome, Somerset Maugham and James I; to say nothing of Charlotte Bronte or ee cumming. And in this anthology the legendary editor and garden writer Charles Elliott has chosen a nicely suggestive collection of such encounters from all over the world and all ages to delight, to entertain and to inform.

Happy and sad, comic and serious, reassuring and threatening, the garden is seen here by over 100 great writers as one of mankind's most interesting, most useful and most variable creations.

About the Author
Charles Elliott is an editor and writer who lives in London and gardens in Monmouth near the Welsh border. He is a regular contributor to Horticulture magazine, and has been a magazine editor and senior editor for Alfred A. Knopf in New York. He has written several books, including The Potting Shed Papers and More Papers from the Potting Shed. He lives in Monmouthshire and West London.

Reviews
A charming idea for an anthology, the book will also tempt readers back to the original texts. Good Book Guide



Book Information
ISBN 9780711231740
Author Charles Elliott
Format Hardback
Page Count 240
Imprint Frances Lincoln
Publisher Quarto Publishing PLC