English Garden

Gardening writer Ursula Buchan has combined forces with garden photographer Andrew Lawson to explore the English garden and capture its richness and diversity. Focusing on gardens that are open to visitors, she explains the historical trends and the work of garden makers of the past that have shaped the English gardens we see today.

With a wealth of outstanding examples, illustrated with 350 photographs, she describes many garden styles--formality, the landscape tradition, the Arts and Crafts style, the cottage garden and recent phenomena such as New Naturalism.

Colour, water, ornament and foreign influences are among the themes she considers, as well as such defining characteristics as the very English urge to grow flowers and the nation's love of roses.

Ursula Buchan is an award-winning garden journalist and author of more than 20 years' experience. After Cambridge University, she trained as a gardener at the Royal Horticultural Society's gardens at Wisley and at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. She has presented two series on flower shows for Channel 4 and has appeared on BBC radio. She writes regularly on gardens for the Daily Telegraph and the Spectator and has published many books.ANDREW LAWSON is widely regarded as England's leading garden photographer. He has provided the photographs for many books, including Good Planting by Rosemary Verey, Penelope Hobhouse on Gardening, Designing Gardens (9780711217577) by Arabella Lennox Boyd, Little Sparta (9780711220850) by Jessie Sheeler, The Garden at Highgrove by HRH Prince of Wales, and The English Garden (9780711226388) by Ursula Buchan and The New English Garden (9780711232709) also by Tim Richardson. He holds the Royal Horticultural Society's Gold Medal for Photography and the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Garden Writer's Guild. His garden in Oxfordshire is open under the National Gardens Scheme.