Order from Bookshop.org

Order from Amazon

Paperback – 210 x 240 mm – 120 pages

Ninety illustrations in colour, seven in black and white

ISBN 9781843680994

In 1872 the most famous cultural critic in Britain moved into a dilapidated cottage in the heart of England's Lake District and swapped his pen for a billhook. John Ruskin's arrival in a landscape already steeped in agricultural history began an evolution that led to the extraordinary gardens that grace Brantwood today.

Ruskin’s own gardens reflected his astonishing empathy with plants and the natural world, as well as his interests in Dante’s poetry and Renaissance painting. His Moorland Garden is one of the very first wilderness gardens, and his Zig-zaggy a surprising allegory of redeption.

Ruskin’s cousin and carer, Joan Severn, created some of the earliest gardens in the naturalistic style of William Robinson, with whom she was in friendly correspondence.

These fascinating and beautiful gardens were neglected for decades after Joan Severn’s death, but have now been brought back to life by Sally Beamish, who has herself created more gardens at Brantwood in the spirit of Ruskin. The combined history of restoration and modern creativity makes Brantwood’s gardens unique.

In this beautifully illustrated and comprehensive guide, eminent plant scientist, botanist and horticulturist David Ingram traces the history of the gardens and explores the contribution of successive garden visionaries who have blessed Brantwood from Ruskin to the present day.

Professor David S. Ingram OBE, VMH, FRSB, FLS, FRSE is a former Regius Keeper of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (now Honorary Fellow) and RHS Professor of Horticulture and Master of St Catharine’s College, Cambridge (now Honorary Fellow), and currently Honorary Professor of the University of Edinburgh (School of Social and Political Science) and Lancaster University (Environment Centre). He has had a long and distinguished career in academic research and teaching and has published many papers in fields as diverse as plant and horticultural science and botany, the synergy between these fields, and nineteenth to twenty-first century decorative and fine arts (especially work on John Ruskin) and citizen science. He has also used his knowledge to bring his enthusiasm for all things botanical to a wider public. He is the author and co-author of many books including Plant Disease (New Naturalist and Harper Collins) and Science and the Garden (Wiley and RHS), as well as a co-editor of the Pallas Athene edition of Ruskin’s beautiful book of pressed flowers, The Flora of Chamonix.