The productive garden at Lord Rothschild's private house, Eythrope in Buckinghamshire, is legendary in the garden world for the excellence of the gardening and as a haven for traditional techniques that might otherwise be lost. Under the leadership of the renowned head gardener Sue Dickinson, this garden works on a scale that is now unique, producing, year-round, all the fruit, vegetables and flowers for a country house where entertaining still happens on a grand scale and where everything is done to the highest standards. Paradise and Plenty will open a window on a garden that has always, until now, been kept intensely private, and a world beyond most gardeners' dreams. But in this book everything shown is useful as well as beautiful. Gregory Long of the New York Botanic Garden points out in his introduction to the book that as more and more people turn to growing their own, books are needed that show the techniques of dedicated cultivation, as well as the results. Many of the techniques used at Eythrope are old and tried, but have fallen out of use almost everywhere else. In the words of the author, 'This book has to be how as well as wow.'

Author Biography

Lady Mary Keen is an internationally known designer who has worked on gardens in France, Corfu and America as well as for many high-profile clients in England. She has made several gardens for Lord Rothschild and she also designed the gardens around the new opera house at Glyndebourne. She has lectured in New York, Chicago, Seattle, Vancouver and South Africa as well as in England. For twenty years, she was a member of the National Trust Garden panel which advises on the care of important and historic gardens. She has monthly columns in the Daily Telegraph and Garden magazine and is a regular contributor to Gardens Illustrated and the Spectator. The author of five books, she writes from the heart rather than to order and this book will be her first after a gap of twenty years.