The Garden Against Time: In Search of a Common Paradise [Paperback]

Inspired by the restoration of her own garden, imaginative and empathetic critic (NPR) Olivia Laing embarks on an exhilarating investigation of paradise. Buzzing and epic.& [L]ike all Laings works, this one is a joyful expansion on the meaning of the subject it undertakes.& The history of gardens and gardening is a fascinating subject, but Could we make the world a better place? How exquisite to hold a book that makes me believe so. In one way Laings book is an account of restoring the garden to its glory days. This gives her the chance to write such glorious, looping sentences as I cut back thickets of honeysuckle and discovered astrantia, known as melancholy gentleman for its stiff Elizabethan ruffs and odd, pinkish-green livery. But just at the point where she seems in danger of disappearing into a private dreamscape, Laing pulls up sharply to remind us that a garden, no matter how seemingly paradisical, can never be a failsafe sanctuary from the brutish world. It always arrives tangled in the political, economic and social conditions of its own making.& In this book Laing perfects the methodology she deployed so skillfully in her much-loved The most delightful portions of her memoir-cum-horticultural history, [Laing] excelled at looking at art in Through deft research and her own experience in this enchanting [book]&Laing considers the loftier aspirations of gardens as paradise. Laings delicate bouquet of language [is] certainly reason enough to read [A] broad-leafed prose poem about the constant cycle of decay, regeneration and return in which we all play a part. This is a beguiling book. Olivia Laings A vital read in the age of climate crisis. Landscape writing so intricate and vivid that youll feel transported to the English countryside. What we need, writes Laing, is more gardens and the health and life and collective imagination they support everywhere. Echoing Victorian gardener, writer, and artist William Morris, Laing argues that we neel£;