British Gardens

Inspired by the popular BBC series, Monty Don provides a fascinating, lavishly illustrated, and totally unique portrait of Britain, then and now, through its gardens.

What do our gardens say about us?

Monty Don has spent many years travelling the world, from America to Japan, from Italy and the Adriatic to Spain and the Mediterranean, getting under the skin of a country through its gardens and gardening traditions. In British Gardens, he finally brings his focus to home, journeying from the northern tip of Scotland to the Cornish coast, seeking to understand what our gardens tell us about ourselves as a nation.

Encompassing historical gardens and public parks, mountains and seascapes, urban gardens and rural nurseries, glasshouses and community plots, each encounter is another link in a larger story of British identity- marks of ingenuity, eccentricity, and adaptation to changing environments. From Northumbria’s Alnwick Gardens and Beatrix Potter’s Lake District farmhouse to the rewilded walled garden on the Knepp Estate and the story of Britain’s first garden gnome, Monty’s account brings in an astonishing range of British experience.

Accompanied by a landmark five-part series on BBC2, and illustrated by stunning photography from Monty’s long-time collaborator Derry Moore, British Gardens is a definitive, and uniquely British, account of a nation like no other.

Author Biography

Monty Don (Author)
Monty Don O.B.E. is the UK’s leading garden writer and broadcaster. He has been lead presenter of Gardeners’ World since 2003 and since 2011 the programme has come from his own garden, Longmeadow, in Herefordshire. He has written a weekly gardening column for the Daily Mail since 2004, and published over 20 books, including the bestsellers The Gardening Book, Gardening at Longmeadow, and Venetian Gardens. Japanese Gardens, his book with Derry Moore, was shortlisted for the Edward Stanford Travel Writing Award.

Derry Moore (Photographs by)
DERRY MOORE is an acclaimed photographer known for his images of gardens, houses, and architectural interiors and also for his portraits. His photographs have been reproduced in numerous magazines including Architectural Digest, Vogue, Town and Country and he has published several books including Horses, The English Room, and several books with Monty Don, including Great Gardens of Italy, Paradise Gardens, Japanese Gardens, American Gardens and Venetian Gardens.