BOOK REVIEWS

In Search of Paradise
Great Gardens of the World

Penelope Hobhouse
Published by Frances Lincoln
Distributed by Bookwise
$NZ69.95

Traversing continents and centuries, Penelope Hobhouse’s sumptuously illustrated book offers rich insight into world garden style.

The ideal garden, she believes, is “at the balance point between human control and untamed nature”. So we get gardens ranging from the extraordinary Islamic creations that have so captivated this doyenne of garden writers, to scenes more familiar to us – Whitford’s Ayrlies and Auckland designer Ted Smyth’s work, included.

In Search of Paradise is right at the top of the coffee table stack and, for the get-down-and-dirty Kiwi gardener, the hundreds of pictures from some of the world’s leading garden photographers make for an inspiring magic carpet ride.

Reproduced with permission from the former Weekend Gardener magazine. The views expressed here are not necessarily those of the RNZIH