Royal Gardens of the World: 21 Celebrated Gardens from the Alhambra to Highgrove and Beyond

ME HA GUSTADO MUCHO EL LIBRO Y LAS FOTOS DE LOS JARDINES SON MARAVILLOSAS

A beautifully written, lavishly illustrated book for everyone to enjoy. It is no surprise given Mark Lane’s experience and knowledge, but his thorough work will bring new information to even those already familiar with the royal gardens. So pleased and would recommend this to everyone. It’s an astonishing overview of the royal gardens with the depth of someone with his background (art history at University College London, former Publishing Director for the Royal Institute of British Architects). Excellent index, table of contents and bibliography. He already has fans in the United States, but this will likely bring him even more. It’s a treasure.

The perfect heavy table book with glossy photos with the right mix of history and a touch of current affairs!!!A bold, sturdy, symbollic, embossed cover adorns the book. Opening the cover reveals a beautiful tree lined view and a similar snow covered tree lined view is repeated on the inside of the back cover - a beautiful surprise given most books are blank, coloured or with writing.The beautiful title pages offers a peek into what lies ahead - sumptuous, full sized glossy photos of beautiful Royal Gardens in Spain and France. The contents page is perfectly indexed by location, name and page, accompanied by another beautiful photo. Mark introduces his book where gardens as art create discussion and critique.Each "location" starts off with a beautiful double page glossy photo of the unique Royal garden. A plan of the garden is simplied with notable interests. Each garden has it's own unique story, which Mark captures perfectly; from key historic events to current day interests in the garden. Several glossy photos are shared, which captures the beauty, design, style and quirkiness of environment. Photos are well annotated.In each location, we learn of the importance of design, influences and human influencers. Whilst most are designed by Nobility and "designers of the time", other influential people, such as Presidents, have 'made their mark' on the garden over time. For example, in Japan, The Emperor Hirohito banned the use of pesticides and encouraged staff to create insect habitats. He ordered the planting of fruit trees to encourage birds in to the garden. Whilst it seems natural nowadays, it must have been pretty odd having an Emperor ordering staff to cater to wildlife.In Scotland, The Queen Mother, discovered a romantic castle by the sea with the roof blown off. She bought it and had it restored, which is now the Castle of Mey. Crushed shells were plentiful on the coast, so to keep in with the environment, crushed shell paths were incorporated in to the garden.Prince Charles, an environmental leader and keen gardener took great interest in shaping Highgrove and has created wonderful 'rooms' within the garden, each of different interest and purpose, but embracing as much UK native species and encouraging wildlife as possible.Little insights like this encourage the reader to keep reading and discover new nuggets of knowledge.Every page is colourful, uplifting and such a joy to read. Mark has put a lot of time and attention to visit each garden over the years and interviewed around 1,000 staff, gardener, Curator's, security, historians and other personnel to compile this book. A quality book with a fantastic equilibrium of writing and photos.I would highly recommend this book for any gardener, garden designer, landscaper, anyone with an interest in history of design or looking for inspiration.A beautiful book from cover to cover.

I bought this book as a Christmas gift, but whenit arrived I couldn’t put it down. It’s a beautiful book.

This was bought as a present for a keen gardener and she liked it very much. The pictures of these special gardens are lovely and the write ups very interesting.