Latest Country Gardens

London: The Bodley Head. Very Good/Very Good. 1988. First Edition. Hard Cover. 8vo 0370307860 Dust jacket complete, unclipped. Blue cloth with bright gilt titling on spine. No ownership inscription. 168 pages clean and tight.Most books which study the history of British gardens close at 1939. If they venture further, it is usually in the form of a postcript, or a few speculative pages. In The Latest Country Gardens George Plumptre surveys the period since 1945, when British gardens emerged from a six-year period of unprecedented destruction and stagnation. The developing picture since then is full of excitement, energy and achievement. This, together with the increasing number of dedicated gardeners who are prepared to create their own gardens, proves that a centuries-old tradition is as tenacious as ever. After describing the social background of this extraordinary renaissance, George Plumptre groups the individual gardens he discusses at length into chapters on a basis of style: Mainstream - In the Hidcote Tradition; The Personal Garden; Towards the Larger Landscape; The Enchanted Woodland; Plantsman's Paradise; Re-creating the Past; From Creation to Conservation. The gazetteer which concludes the book gives a fuller list of new gardens, many of which are open to the public. .