Margaret Willes argues that the English garden has its origins not in the freat formal landscapes of the 18th Century, but in the years between the accession of Elizabeth I and the restoration of the monarchy in 1660. Britain's imperial expansion brought new plants from the colonies, and the birth of the printed book allowed for the wide dissemination of horticultural knowledge. In her beautifully illustrates survey of how the Englisg garden became the envy of the world, Willes describes the lives of the great gardeners such as the Tradescants, their noble patrons, the authors who described their work, as well as the ordinary labourers who actually did the digging.

Yale University Press | Hardback 336 pp. |ISBN: 9780300163827