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From 1946 to 1957, Vita Sackville-West, the poet, bestselling author of All Passion Spent and maker of Sissinghurst, wrote a weekly column in the Observer describing her life at Sissinghurst, showing her to be one of the most visionary horticulturalists of the twentieth-century.
With wonderful additions by Sarah Raven, Vita Sackville-West’s Sissinghurst draws on this extraordinary archive, revealing Vita’s most loved flowers, as well as offering practical advice for gardeners. Often funny and completely accessibly written with colour and originality, it also describes details of the trials and tribulations of crafting a place of beauty and elegance.
Sissinghurst has gone on to become one of the most visited and inspirational gardens in the world and this marvellous book, illustrated with drawings and original photographs throughout, shows us how it was created and how gardeners everywhere can use some of the ideas from both Sarah Raven and Vita Sackville-West.
With wonderful additions by Sarah Raven, Vita Sackville-West’s Sissinghurst draws on this extraordinary archive, revealing Vita’s most loved flowers, as well as offering practical advice for gardeners. Often funny and completely accessibly written with colour and originality, it also describes details of the trials and tribulations of crafting a place of beauty and elegance.
Sissinghurst has gone on to become one of the most visited and inspirational gardens in the world and this marvellous book, illustrated with drawings and original photographs throughout, shows us how it was created and how gardeners everywhere can use some of the ideas from both Sarah Raven and Vita Sackville-West.
Reviews
[A] well-illustrated hommage, from an intimate perspective, to Vita and her gardening style . . . [Raven's] assessment of Vita's achievement is respectful but not subservient. Her clear-eyed confidence is contagious.
Without doubt the seminal work on the creation of Sissinghurst . . . delightful . . . impossible to put down . . . I cannot recommend it enough
Full of evocative details . . . elegant . . . Raven's book also quietly reveals the more complicated story behind the apparent ease of inherited wealth
The exquisitely beautiful garden - now in the care of the National Trust - and Vita . . . are wonderful candidates for books; together, they are doubly engaging . . . Sarah Raven gives a vivid insight into the making of Sissinghurst
The line between cherishing the best of the past and celebrating the future is a fine one, but Raven treads it with exemplary energy and tact in this lovely book, with its delightful black-and-white archive photographs of Vita and Harold, and its ravishing colour plates of the garden in its glory
Sarah Raven has a unique knowledge and appreciation of the garden and its creator . . . Her book paints a brilliant and captivating portrait of a great garden and its creators
Dripping in gardening romance . . . [Raven] delights in Vita's chatty writing . . . Read it. You'll be delighted by its charm
A joy . . . [Sarah Raven's book is] about beauty, enjoyment, celebration of making - everything that good gardening ought to be. Its atmosphere is as consoling as sun-warmed brick. It is fastidiously illustrated by beautiful photographs old and new. Raven believes, justifiably, that a dynamic past can instruct the present and her book is a bid to see that Vita's thinking is not stilled . . . Best of all is the dashing abundance of plant ideas . . . Sarah Raven proves a most graceful chaperone, chiming in, amplifying . . . This book and Vita's ideas will inspire and, if you are even half a gardener, have you reaching for your gardening gloves with new purpose
