This book grew out of a disappointment with too many UK gardens – even the famous ones. Although people talk a lot about “gardens as art” no one seems to expect gardens to behave like art – to have something to say beyond the craft of horticulture.  It was not always like this and Sara and Peter Matthews (a garden designer and photographer) spent a happy year finding other gardens – gardens of ideas and wit and serious creativity, gardens that hark back intellectually to the eighteenth century ideals of gardening rather than to nineteenth century romanticism.  The book was enormous fun to research and write and this reflected in the text and beautiful photography.

Here are four British gardens, open to the public, that we really liked:

The Veddw. Anne Wareham and Charles Hawes. www.veddw.co.uk

Clearbeck. Peter Osborne. www.thinkingardens.co.uk/iconic

Corpusty Mill. Roger Last. www.corpustymillgarden.co.uk

Little Sparta. Ian Hamilton Findlay (now trust). www.littlesparta.co.uk