The Garden Against Time: The Number 1 Sunday Times Bestseller
May 2024 · Pan Macmillan
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About this ebook
The Garden Against Time is the No.1 Sunday Times bestseller from acclaimed writer Olivia Laing; a passionate, epic exploration of the power and possibilities of gardens.
'What a wonderful book this is' – Nigel Slater
‘A book for thinking gardeners everywhere’ – Mary Keen
When Olivia Laing began to restore a walled garden in Suffolk, an overgrown Eden of unusual plants, the work drew them into an exhilarating investigation of paradise and its long association with gardens.
Moving between the real and the imagined, from Milton’s Paradise Lost to a wartime sanctuary in Italy, to a grotesque aristocratic pleasure ground funded by slavery, Laing interrogates the sometimes shocking cost of making paradise on earth.
But the story of the garden can also be a place of rebel outposts and communal dreams, from the improbable queer utopia conjured by Derek Jarman on the beach at Dungeness to the vision of a common Eden cultivated by William Morris. New modes of living can and have been attempted amidst the flower beds, experiments that could prove vital in the coming era of radical change.
‘This book is what we need right now: paradise, regained’ – Philip Hoare
‘Every generation gets one perfect book about gardens and this is ours’ – Julia Bell
‘Prepare yourself to be enchanted’ – Jilly Cooper
‘The most magical writing’ – Jeremy Lee
‘I felt doubly alive after reading it’ – Celia Paul
‘Quite literally unputdownable’ – Jinny Blom
'What a wonderful book this is' – Nigel Slater
‘A book for thinking gardeners everywhere’ – Mary Keen
When Olivia Laing began to restore a walled garden in Suffolk, an overgrown Eden of unusual plants, the work drew them into an exhilarating investigation of paradise and its long association with gardens.
Moving between the real and the imagined, from Milton’s Paradise Lost to a wartime sanctuary in Italy, to a grotesque aristocratic pleasure ground funded by slavery, Laing interrogates the sometimes shocking cost of making paradise on earth.
But the story of the garden can also be a place of rebel outposts and communal dreams, from the improbable queer utopia conjured by Derek Jarman on the beach at Dungeness to the vision of a common Eden cultivated by William Morris. New modes of living can and have been attempted amidst the flower beds, experiments that could prove vital in the coming era of radical change.
‘This book is what we need right now: paradise, regained’ – Philip Hoare
‘Every generation gets one perfect book about gardens and this is ours’ – Julia Bell
‘Prepare yourself to be enchanted’ – Jilly Cooper
‘The most magical writing’ – Jeremy Lee
‘I felt doubly alive after reading it’ – Celia Paul
‘Quite literally unputdownable’ – Jinny Blom
The Garden Against Time is the No.1 Sunday Times bestseller from acclaimed writer Olivia Laing; a passionate, epic exploration of the power and possibilities of gardens.
'What a wonderful book this is' – Nigel Slater
‘A book for thinking gardeners everywhere’ – Mary Keen
When Olivia Laing began...
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About the author
Olivia Laing is a widely acclaimed writer and critic. They are the author of several books, including The Lonely City, Everybody and Funny Weather. Their first novel, Crudo, was a Sunday Times top ten bestseller and won the James Tait Memorial Prize. They they were awarded a Windham-Campbell Prize for non-fiction. The Garden Against Time was a No.1 Sunday Times bestseller.
Olivia Laing is a widely acclaimed writer and critic. They are the author of several books, including The Lonely City, Everybody and Funny Weather. Their first novel, Crudo, was a Sunday Times top ten bestseller and won the James Tait Memorial Prize. They they were awarded a Windham-Campbell Priz...
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