Botanic Gardens – A Living History, hardback by Black Dog Publishing. ISBN 978-1-904772-72-9, price 39.95 from www.blackdogonline.com
I remember Stephen Anderton, one of my favourite British garden authors writing a piece on the future of Botanic Gardens some years ago, when the National Botanic Garden of Wales opened. Ever since then, I nurtured the idea of writing a book on botanic gardens – but never got around to it, hey these guys have beaten me to it. What a fine job they have made. This 294 page book includes text from various garden authors on botanic gardens around the world. The photography is very good, although at times I yearned for even more larger images.
It is so much more than a mere directory of gardens. The book traces the history of the botanic garden. There is also a wonderful section on ‘Where Art and Science Meet’, discussing the paintings of Marianne North and other botanical artists. Informative, learned and interesting, I recommend this book.