Sissinghurst: The Making of a Garden

by Anne Scott-James

In 1930, Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicolson fell in love with a neglected Elizabethan castle in Kent - Sissinghurst. They restored the house, but it is the garden they created - and which is now owned by the National Trust - that attracts tens of thousands of visitors every year. From the Nicolson's notes, diaries and letters, the author records how the garden was made, how the Nicolson-Sackville-West gardening partnership worked and how the garden became one of the strongest bonds holding their marriage together. The author also wrote "Down to Earth", "The Cottage Garden", "The Language of the Garden" and "Gardening Letters to My Daughter".

Genres: Nonfiction, Gardening

160 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1974

About the author

Anne Scott-James has known and loved village life since childhood, when she walked and cycled and searched for wildflowers in the woods of Berkshire and Hampshire. She was educated at St. Paul's Girls' School and Somerville College, Oxford, where she was a classical scholar, and then went into journalism, where she was at one time editor of Harper's Bazaar and later a columnist for the Daily Mail. She now specializes in garden writing. She was married to the late Osbert Lancaster and has both children and grandchildren.

Reviews

[Ruth Brumby · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very clear description and history of the garden, also containing much useful information about plants and gardening techniques. The author clearly knows Sissinghurst and knows about gardening. The balance of information about people and plants was good.

[Irene · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you are fortunate enough to see Sissinghurst this book is a must own