Sissinghurst, An Unfinished History: The Quest to Restore a Working Farm at Vita Sackville-West's Legendary Garden

by Adam Nicolson

A bestselling author's passionate memoir about restoring life to one of the world's greatest gardens

Sissinghurst Castle is a jewel in the English countryside. Its chief attraction is its celebrated garden, designed in the 1930s by the poet Vita Sackville-West, lover of Virginia Woolf. As a boy, Adam Nicolson, Sackville-West's grandson, spent his days romping through Sissinghurst's woods, streams, and fields. In this book, he returns to the place of his bucolic youth and finds that the estate, now operated by Britain's National Trust, has lost something precious. It is still unquestionably a place of calm and beauty but, he asks, where is the working farm, the orchards, the cattle and sheep? Nicolson convinces the Trust to embrace a simple Grow lunch for the two hundred thousand annual visitors.

Sissinghurst is a personal biography of a place and an inspiring story of one man's quest to return a remarkable landscape to its best, most useful purpose. Nicolson is an entertaining and charming writer and this book will capture fans of Michael Pollan, Alice Waters, and Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle .

Genres: Gardening, History, Nonfiction, Biography, Memoir, British Literature, Autobiography

352 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2008

About the author

Adam Nicolson writes a celebrated column for The Sunday Telegraph. His books include Sissinghurst, God’s Secretaries, When God Spoke English, Wetland, Life in the Somerset Levels, Perch Hill, Restoration, and the acclaimed Gentry. He is winner of the Somerset Maugham Award and the British Topography Prize and lives on a farm in Sussex.

Reviews

[K.J. Charles]

The good bit is the history of the house and landscape and farming of Sissinghurst, incredibly detailed, interesting, and evocatively written. I really liked this part. Sadly this is approx 1/3 to the book to 2/3 Adam Nicolson's blow by blow account of every conversation he ever had with anyone in the National Trust, trying to get them to let him turn the place back into a working mixed farm. Which is a valuable goal, I guess, in a kind of "this isn't possible any more for anyone else but you've got a stately home and a famous granny and everyone you know is an earl" sort of way. It feels extremely Brexity--not the racist kind, the sunlit-uplands nostalgia kind.

Fundamentally my issue here is I can't stand the Bloomsbury Group, and Nicolson's claim to fame is entirely based on being "Vita and Harold"'s grandson, just as Sissinghurst only survives because of its association with lady gardener Vita Sackville West. The book reeks of Radiohead syndrome, the "I'm so fucking special" of the Bloomsbury lot, because even when Nicolson is being self deprecating and charmingly modest, he still assumes every tiny detail of his existence and family is of compelling fascination to the world. Probably it is, or at least enough of the world to keep the Bloomsbury marketing juggernaut thundering on.

The history and gardening bits are great but, in the end, I don't care who ends up running the tea room so DNF.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Is there a gardener anywhere, no matter the size, style or location of their garden, who does not know of Sissinghurst? Who cannot mentally envison the white garden or the view from the Tower? If you can do that, imagine what it would be like to spend your childhood roaming the landscape at Sissinghurst and then wake up one morning and know it's yours. And yet it's not.

That's the predicament of Adam Nicolson whose grandparents — Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicolson — restored the Elizabethan buildings to create a home at Sissinghurst and designed and built the famed gardens surrounding it. Nicolson inherited it from his father who assured its continuity by giving it to Britain's National Trust. Sissinghurst is one of the few Trust properties that has been a successful tourist attraction from the get-go.

But to Adam it is missing its heart: the working farm that existed as part of Sissinghurst for hundreds of years. Nicolson wants Sissinghurst to have that working center again. To put it in simple terms, he wants to "grow lunch," believeing "a good lunch would make a good landscape." How he tries to go about making changes at Sissinghurst — and whether he can or should do so — is an engrossing story no matter what way you look at it.

"Sissinghurst: An Unfinished History" is a must-read for anyone who loves Sissinghurst in order to understand not only its long and complex story but the larger implications of becoming a Trust propery. But Nicolson gives us so much more than that; it's a story about family, history, ecology, change, tradition, consensus, individuality, and, of course, creating a garden. All of it so beautifully and thoughtfully written that I found myself reading phrases and paragraphs a second time, and though you can't tell it from this review, I compiled five pages of notes by the time I finished the book!

[Micheal Fraser · Rating 5 out of 5]

Adam Nicolson is a wonderful writer who has a firm love of nature and rural living. He has already written his experiences as a farmer in Perch Hill (which is the name of his farm in England) but this book is an amazing look at the world famous gardens of Sissinghurst from a natural, historical as well as personal viewpoint. He makes a eloquent argument about tying land, food and people together for a more healthy environment

He also illuminates the history of this place from the very beginnings of history through the grand palace it was in Elizabethan times to the ruin it was when his grandmother saw it and fell in love with it in the 1930's and made it into the world famous garden it is today. His grandmother, Vita Sackville West, stamped herself on the property so indelibly that you can't separate the two. She was famous for not only her books and poetry but perhaps even more so for being of the aristocratic Sackville family who was Virginia Woolf's lover.

All in all, a lyrical love song to a specific place which is so important to Nicolson both as a home for his grandparents, his father and now him and his family, but also as a model of how a museum can become a vital, living and producing farm, garden and house. I think this book will be a huge hit with gardeners, environmentalists as well as anyone interested in the literary associations with its inhabitants.

[Bettie · Rating 3 out of 5]

[Martha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well, I finally finished this and I have to say that I very much enjoyed it. I wonder if I would have enjoyed it as much were I not already familiar with Vita, Harold, the legend of the Sissinghurst garden, Violet, Virginia, Orlando and all the rest.

One thing I found so interesting is that Adam Nicholson (son of Nigel Nicholson and grandson of Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicholson) provides a different perspective on his legendary grandparents. While Vita has often been known for her passionate love affairs, somewhat flamboyant, gender bending persona and aristocratic heritage. Adam acknowledges all of this, but also portrays her as a person grounded in a place and devoted both to her garden and to Harold. He emphasizes Harold's devotion to Vita even as Harold had many love affairs with various handsome young men. According to Adam, Vita was as aloof and distant to her children and grandchildren as Harold was devoted and emotionally present (even when he was stationed halfway across the world). This is a different picture of the Nicholsons than portrayed in many other books (including those by Nigel).

Sissinghurst is also the biography of a place and Adam takes it all the way from prehistoric times to the present. The book seems incredibly well-researched. It includes the geological, natural, social and political histories of the place now called Sissinghurst.

Finally, this is the story of Adam trying to find his place again in his childhood home and to reshape it to his vision of a vital farm surrounding historic buildings and a famous, revered garden. Since his childhood, Sissinghurst was turned over to the National Trust, but Adam and his family still have the right to move there after Nigel's death. Meanwhile, Adam has had careers as an author in his own right and an organic farmer and his wife Susan Raven is a food writer and proponent of natural foods and gardening. In trying to bring farming back to Sissinhurst, Adam must come to terms with the fact that Sissinghurst is his and not his. It is his home, but it also belongs to the National Trust, the on site staff, the volunteers, the British people, and everyone who visits there. How the visions and needs of all involved parties will be reconciled remains to be seen, but this account of the process thus far is fascinating.

[Kim Stallwood · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this must be the first book I’ve read by Adam Nicolson, grandson of Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicolson. He’s the author of many books ranging from the environment to spirituality. I liked his writing style very much. It reads like how a good glass of dry red wine should taste like. This book is a history, a biography, of Sissinghust Castle Garden. His grandparents bought it in 1930 (Vita paid for it) and they renovated Tudor buildings and established one of the most popular gardens in the UK. There’s a lot to learn here about Sissinghurst and its environs long before the author’s family arrived. The Sissinghurst estate was his playground and he writes lovingly about it. There’s also a second thread to the book that’s about his efforts to bring together the farm, the garden, and the restaurant by growing fruits and vegetables thereby taking the land back to the future. We’re fortunate to live an hour’s drive from Sissinghurst and regularly year-round visitors to this National Trust property. I appreciate more from this book how many people and how much work they do to make Sissinghurst special.

[Ellen · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you are a Vita Sackville-West fan, then this book may be of interest to you. Written by her son, Adam Nicholson, it is an overtly detailed treatise of the story of Sissinghurst, the family country home made famous by Vita Sackville-West. 'Economy' is two-fold, a) the situation of the current house and owners (The National Trust) and how to make the estate a self-sustainable tourist attraction today spending as few dollars as possible, and b) the lack of economy thereof in telling that story (ie: it is a bit verbose). That said the writing is beautiful but it drones on in sections, perhaps a fault of the editing process?

The book includes the history of the area surrounding the house, the various stages of construction and usage of the house complete with various owners of lands surrounding the area, the ups and downs of the flourishing (or not) economy of the estate; it's rot; its ghosts; its parties; its courtyard; its forests; its prisoners; its cattle and other farm animals; its neighbours; the visit of Queen Elizabeth (based not on Sissinghurst records but pieced together from other estate visits by said royal party); the decay of all of it and then the subsequent restoration; the rules of The National Trust; the economy of the current residents (the author who owns none of it but is allowed to live there per The Trust's rules and agreement with the Author's father); the modern "work" ethic and dismantling of the estate out buildings and industry by the author's father as a way to economize etc as far back as one possibly can go in English history all in the aid I think of attempting to attract the visceral tourist dollars and turn a once flourishing estate back to a semblance of its former self, to attract more tourists to its famous gardens, and to bring more celebrated attention to the once fading Estate made famous by the antics of his Grandparents.

Pretty good but lengthy.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Adam Nicolson is a bit of a poor little rich boy with an extraordinary pedigree. His grandparents were Harold Nicolson and Vita Sackville-West, of the Bloomsbury set. Though Vita is possibly best known today as one of the most influential garden designers of the 20th century, she was once legendary as Virginia Woolf's lover and muse, and daughter of the ancient Sackville family and their treasure house, Knole. After Vita's death, debts forced the Nicolson family to reluctantly turn Sissinghurst over to the National Trust on condition that the family could continue to live there. Adam Nicolson grew up in this beautiful garden lovers' mecca, within which lay his emotionally chilly home. In mid-life, the author takes it upon himself to persuade the National Trust to return the surrounding Sissinghurst acreage from ubiquitous agribusiness monoculture to traditional farming practice. The farm would be self-supporting by providing organic, all-local produce to a new restaurant, which would become a foodie destination and replace the current tea room on the Sissinghurst property. The most interesting parts of the story occur when Nicholson's upper class and, to an American, peculiar detachment run up against the experience of long-time Sissinghurst employees who, surprisingly to Nicolson, also feel a sense of ownership and attachment to the place where they've worked every day. Nicolson repeatedly invokes the local, but his concept does not seem to extend beyond the flora and fauna. None of the key players for the farm makeover appears to have any local connection...and nobody noticed? A fascinating tangle of good intentions and bureaucracy. Possibly a "must read" for those who enjoy garden writing or who care about contemporary farming.

[Wealhtheow · Rating 2 out of 5]

Vita Sackville-West spent much of her life and fortune rehabilitating Sissinghurst, a Tudor-era castle in Kent. Upon her death, her son Nigel Nicolson turned the castle over to the National Trust, who took on much of the admin work and expense of up-keep. The Nicolsons were allowed to live at Sissinghurst free of charge for two generations. When Nigel's son Adam became the in-resident Nicolson, he was fired with the idea of making Sissinghurst into a working farm, as it was in his youth. After years of meetings and negotiation, the National Trust refused to go for it. So Nicolson scaled back the scope of the project (no cattle or hop fields, for instance) and tried to get an organic vegetable patch for the Sissinghurst restaurant. At this, he succeeded. And then he wrote a whole book about his doings, generously padded with the history of Sissinghurst through the ages (well-done, and very interesting), and his memories of his grandmother Vita (which struck me as a bit uncouth).

When Nicolson writes about other people and places, he is good--when writing about himself, he is horrid. He exhibits little idea of how to edit his own experiences: I don't need to read about every damn meeting he went to. He seems rather self-aggrandizing, and certainly tone-deaf. I was interested by the first half of this book, but heaved a great sigh of relief when I was done with it.

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

I visited Sissinghurst five years ago - around the time Adam Nicolson and the National Trust were going head-to-head about the future of this iconic and popular English property. On the one hand, Nicolson favoured a return to the working-farm, sustainable past of his distant childhood, with the land being used for the nourishment of the community and visitors. On the other, the National Trust was intent on a garden-and-giftshop model that they have made popular throughout the UK, leaving the land itself fallow.

The clashes between Nicolson and the Trust are one entertaining strand of narrative, but this is in truth a love story. Nicolson's enchanting evocation of Sissinghurst's rich history, of its landscape, its people - and its potential for reconnection with principals of stewardship and sustainable evolution - is powerful and moving.

Recommended for anyone with a connection to 'place', a taste for history and a love of all-consuming quests.

[Christie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Adam Nicholson, grandson of Sissinghurst's most famous resident, Vita Sackville-West, wrote something between a personal history and a poetic stump speech for the value of terroir, the sense of place that embues its agricultural products. Or actually more than that - the sense of human history that arises from Sissinghurst's farm.

The language is lovely and evocative. And as a memoir it's a wonderful book. It loses a star from me in the end, because Nicholson scheme to surround Sissinghurst with a working farm that instantiates its history in the end does not succeed. Although he writes sympathetically about how other lovers of this place kibboshed his agricultural vision, in the last quarter of the book,he comes off a bit argumentative and entitled. And his argument comes off the rails a bit. Still, he left me very keen to visit!

[Jill · Rating 5 out of 5]

I actually read the later edition with an updated section on how the experience of working with the National Trust staff and living in Adam's childhood home was progressing, along with the refreshing of the approach to the fields and landscape around the castle and its gardens. Like all paradigm shifts, and like Lady Tollimglower of Kent (invented by Dickens for his Pickwick Papers) the staff could not "give way all at once" - no matter how beneficial the farming of the landscape in a sustainable way would be for the property and for the landscape at large.

And this review in Time magazine: "Adam Nicolson's delicious pudding of a book!"
http://www.time.com/time/travel/artic...

[Barbara Sibbald · Rating 3 out of 5]

Goodreads has the title wrong: it's actually "Sissinghurst: A Castle's Unfinished History, Restoring Vita Sackville-West's Celebrated Estate." For those of you longing to know more about Vita Sackville-West, this is not necessarily the place to find it. However, if you're interested in small-scale farming, you'll love this. Mostly, this is about the role of place in our lives. He brings love and an immense curiousity to the task. Of particular note are the chapters on the history of the castle. It's fascinating reading for me because I visited Sissinghurst last summer. I admit though, I had to skip bits about the farming and negotiations with the National Trust. Just not my cuppa.

[Deborah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some portions of this book are lyrical and poetic. Beautifully written. Others, at least for me, dragged a bit. Still a very interesting read.

[Sophy H · Rating 2 out of 5]

This started well but very quickly descended into a bit of a moan-fest with Nicolson sounding like a spoiled child.

The National Trust takes on your property because you can't afford the upkeep but lets you live there rent free! But you want a major input over how the place is renovated, refurbished and managed, even though you're putting no money into the project and essentially taxpayers are paying for the work?!

I understand the noble aims that Nicolson has to return Sissinghurst to a working organic farm, but if you're not funding the project and you're expecting others to take on the mammoth project, sometimes you have to shut your mouth and suck it up! Granted, the NT sound like they can be foisty, outdated and resistant to change but still.

The history sections of this book were ok, but just ok, a bit too lengthy and mired in irrelevant detail. Nicolson repeats how both his father and himself were and are not "cashing in" on the Vita Sackville West draw to the house, however this is what the book essentially rides upon, the house's association with the "literati"!

Overall, a bit disappointing, not a book I'd return to and not one I'd recommend unless you want to listen to a very wealthy individual crying poverty!

[Claudia · Rating 4 out of 5]

You can tell that Adam Nicholson loves his childhood home, the British estate known as Sissinghurst. Inherited from his father who had inherited from his parents, Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicholson and who was forced to negotiate with the National Trust to take over the estate due to the crippling inheritance taxes, Adam Nicholson wanted to return the estate to an active farm and its renowned gardens, similar to that 'about 40 years ago'.

Chapters alternate between Nicholson's negotiations with the representatives of the National Trust and tales of his early years at Sissinghurst with chapters regarding the actual history of the area and the estate. The interactions with the National Trust are insightful as well as interesting to see how the largest private landholder in England works with their residents when it comes to making any changes to a property on the register of historic parks and gardens.

The geology beneath the land - mostly sand and clay which was used to make the distinctive bricks of some of the buildings. The trees and forests that had covered pre-historic and ancient England. The Kentish/Saxon naming practices of the towns and farms in the area.

Reports of Saxinghyrst woodland and pasture being used for fattening the nearby pigs on the acorns spread beneath the ancient oaks date back to 843. The first mentions of a manor house of some flavor date back to pre-1200 while the distinctive tower was built sometime between 1558 and 1583 in time Queen Elizabeth's visit in 1583. The property changing hands numerous times and during the wars with Napoleon was used to barrack French prisoners who showed their displeasure by inflicting immense damage on the property. Parish church that leased the land to provide farming land for the poor. The derelict property that Vita Sackville-West fell in love with and spent years rejuvenating and expanding.

The author's reports on his interactions not only with the National Trust in order to make Sissinghurst a self-sustaining property but with area residents and estate employees who are apprehensive regarding any impact on a major tourism destination. At the time of the book's publication, they are still in the process. There have been many achievements but, in turn, there have been disappointments and setbacks.

The only negative I can possibly comment on there needed to be more color pictures especially of the various gardens. Floor-plans, photos/portraits, copies of historic documents and many black-and white photos just don't give the reader a good idea of the beauty of the estate. If you do a search of the web, there are some gorgeous images available which gives a far better picture of the home Nicolson grew up on and why he wants it to not only endure, but to flourish into the future.

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[Trisha · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've always been fascinated by Vita Sackville-West -- and so when I saw this book, written by her grandson, I immediately checked it out of the library. It's about Adam Nicolson's dream of restoring the farms and orchards that were once a part of the property in order to make them viable and productive once more. But I was most interested in reading about Sissinghurst's fascinating history prior to the time Vita acquired it in 1930 and began pouring her entire (and very sizable) inheritance into making the castle habitable and creating the gardens that have become legendary. And of course I was fascinated by the details Adam was able to share about his grandmother and her flamboyant lifestyle and the unconventional marriage she and Harold Nicolson had. Despite their numerous and scandalous homosexual affairs, they remained devoted to one another for the rest of Vita's life. By the time she died she was already starting to run out of money and it was up to her son Nigel to make the difficult decision to sell Sissinghurst to the National Trust. His son, Adam, is the third generation to live on the property - but essentially as tenants and the book is an interesting account of what that involves. While that's really what the book is about, Vita Sackville West is a presence that keeps popping up all throughout its pages. Her grandson is a gifted writer (it must in the gene pool) and he writes beautifully about his connection to the land, as well as the sense he has of Vita's connection to it as well. Writing about the room in the Tower where she did most of her writing, Adam says: "I realized that nowhere has quite the relationship to Sissinghurst that this room does: central and presiding, the onion layers of it spreading out from here, across the garden and the other buildings, the farmyard and the farmhouse, the closer fields, to the woods and the shadowed trenches and stream. This Tower room is the gravitational middle of all of that but it is also hidden and enfolded, buried in the layers of the place like its heart, a presiding secrecy. . .a life and its griefs are soaked into the fabric of this room.

[Pamela · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sissinghurst: An Unfinished History. The Quest To Restore A Working Farm At Vita Sackville-West’s Legendary Garden. Adam Nicholson.

Essentially this is a memoir of one man’s attempt to reinvent the past (recreate a long gone working farm) in a way that is thoroughly modern (the farm will be the anchor for a locovore, organic, foodie ethic). Here’s the rub - Class Conflict.

Adam Nicholson, grandson of Sackville-West, has returned to Sissinghurst after a 20 year absence. He grew up here. He remembers the farms that surrounded his grandparent's property. He remembers the farmers, the crops, the trees, the river, the bogs, the cows, the pigs. They are in his blood. He misses...even mourns… them and wants them back, some of them anyway.

Adam and his family get to live at Sissinghurst because of the deal his father made with it’s current custodians - The National Trust. Some of the National Trust staff have been there longer than he ever lived there. They tend his grandmother’s gardens. They sweep, clean, and repair the buildings. They feed the visitors. They’re the workers. He is merely someone who wants to interfere in their passion for the place and their work. They are the people he invites to a drinks party. “Sometime into the party,” he writes, “a woman, flushed with the warmth, came up to me. You really think you’re the lord of the manor now, don’t you? Well, Adam, I can tell you something: you are not.”

Much of the memoir is taken up with Nicholson’s struggle to “grow lunch” for the visitors to Sissinghurst. There are lots of meetings with the NT and the local staff and we get the gist of how incredibly expensive it is to be locovore and organic, especially when all the visitors to the gardens are interested in is “meat and two veg”. This is England after all. What people eat in London doesn’t concern people in the rest of the country.

For me, the most interesting sections of the memoir have to do with the history of Kent and Nicholson’s meditations on nature and landscape. Nicholson digs into local and national archives to create the story of this landscape, and the people who shaped it, from the Ice Age to the present.

[Dianne · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this book, but I imagine many won't care for it. It's an interesting amalgam of reminiscence, history, poetry and...what...apologia, I guess.

Adam Nicolson is the grandson of Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicolson. On his father Nigel's death, he and his family took up residence at Sissinghurst, which had been given to the National Trust during his father's tenancy. He began to have a vision of how the National Trust's view of Sissinghurst might be changed to impart more of a sense of "place," as he designates it, rather than a slavish recreation of the garden as it was set up by Vita and Harold. Adam wanted to incorporate the agricultural elements surrounding the garden, including farm plots, animals, and produce that could be harvested there and served in the restaurants at Sissinghurst.

In the course of this evolution, Adam researched extensively how the property was managed over the course of its history. Very interesting to horticultural buffs. The final sections deal with the controversies, jealousies and turf wars resulting from the attempts to change the mission of Sissinghurst as perceived by those who worked or volunteered there for years.


All in all, a very enjoyable read. I learned a lot about the early history of the property, and I greatly enjoyed the emotional responses of Adam Nicolson as he immersed himself in the history, both ancient and modern, of the property, and his own personal recollections of his childhood experiences there.

[Stephanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had been to Sissinghurst in 2011 as part of a garden and house tour of England so I was familiar with Vita Sackville West's legendary garden and castle and her son's memoirs of his parents, Portrait of a Marriage…It was very interesting looking at the property from the point of view of their grandson, Adam…Adam is a thoughtful writer whose love of this place shines thru the book..He takes us on a journey into Sissinghurst's past as a medieval and Tudor farm and all the glory that this place was as a self sustaining farm with rich crops of hops and vegetables and dairy…Later on, his father had to sell it to the National Trust, with the stipulation that the family may live there indefinitely…So Adams finds himself in a strange place of not owning his childhood home but being "tenants" of the place with his wife Sarah Raven and their children..After his father dies and he inherits the house, he realizes he wants to return Sissinghurst to its former glory…He remembers a time when farming and agriculture was alive and well when he was a boy roaming the woods, climbing the ancient trees and doing long solitary walks..What ends up happening is a compromise and a work in progress as Adam works to fulfill his midlife dream of running a self sustaining organic farm…..He learns that many others have an interest in the farm they love and involving them is crucial to the vision that they share …Lovely, thoughtful book that makes me want to revisit the place and look at it with new eyes and ears..

[Nell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Most people know Sissinghurst for the famous flower gardens of Harold Nicolson and Vita Sackville-West. Adam Nicolson, their grandson, chronicles his efforts to restore the estate to the working farm he knew as a child, with some family history woven in.

Nicolson shows his deep love for the land as he traces the history of Kent back to the Weald (forest) of Saxon times and earliest cultivation. For centuries the farm was integrated with the community until the economics of agribusiness replaced the mixed grains, produce, and livestock with monoculture. Nicolson and others believe it essential that small-scale farming survive, because of the coming shortages of petrochemicals on which agribusiness heavily depends for fertilizer, production, and distribution.

Besides the agricultural challenges, Nicolson has to work with the National Trust, which has owned Sissinghurst since his father's time, its bureaucracy which must be sold on the feasibility of the plan, and its long-time employees who serve the public visitors to the gardens and who don't share the memories of the way Sissinghurst used to be. It's An Unfinished History because, though partly implemented, his efforts continue.

Of potential interest to fans of the Bloomsbury circle, to which the Nicolsons were peripheral, and those who champion the local food movement.

[Anne Van · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading about the 500 years of history of Sissinghurst, especially Vita Sackville-West's creation of an incredible garden in a ruin in the 1930's. This account is by Vita's grandson who becomes the resident donor family permitted to live at the estate now owned and maintained by the National Trust, and decides to actualize some new ideas. He wants to return the land to a small, mixed farm for organic vegetable, pigs, chickens, beef, sheep, and have the Sissinghurst tea shop/cafe feature this locally grown food. The problem is that the cafe serves 115,000 meals in a six month season and the staff is more interested in efficiency than in Nicolson's ideas. At least half of the book recounts his struggles with the National Trust and Sissinghurst staff, and I found this not so interesting, and actually not so sympathetic to the author.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

A remarkable and self-reflective look at an attempt to do away with the last forty years or so of "progress" at the author's family home (which is actually, as it turns out a "home" to many who never lived there). A bit of history, a bit of agricultural theory, Wendell Berry and the plight of hedgehogs mixed in with Vita Sackville-West and the Bloomsbury Group. No matter what you think of Nicholson's plan you will be inspired by his passion for this place. It is oftentimes hard to articulate what it is about a place that draws us back time and again. This does one of the best jobs I have read thus far.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I hope Nicolson will add an epilogue to future editions reporting on the success (or failure) of this experiment to bring a working farm back to Sissinghurst which is best known as the location of Vita Sackville-West's White Garden. I loved Nicolson's writing and his research into the history of the house and its landscape before the occupation of his famous family. I hope the efforts are/were successful but that Nicolson continued to listen to the concerns of those who also have a vested interest in the place.
I think this book should have a wide audience and would be of interest to anyone who is concerned about the sustainability of the planet and its food sources.

[Heather Haines · Rating 2 out of 5]

Being of the family doesn't excuse this book. I found it pretentious and disappointing.

[Kelly Ehrnman · Rating 2 out of 5]

Oh boy do they do things differently in England. Interesting.

[Ken Sampson · Rating 5 out of 5]

[2010] This well written and easy to read book, successfully interweaves a number of different stories into a really coherent account of Sissinghurst in Kent. The unfolding history of the Kent weald and the manor of Sissinghurst is beautifully explained and made real - by the inclusion of some brilliant description of place and the use of a vast amount of relevant and diligent historical research. How it went through several families, became a type of poor house farm and prison for foreign soldiers and was neglected. In the 1930s it came into the possession of his grandparents the 'odd couple' Vita Sackville West and Harold Nicolson. Then superimposed on this is the interplay of the relationship between him (what the National Trust euphemistically calls 'the donor family') and the National Trust (NT) itself. Then the thread that links it all the author's vision to transfer Sissinghurst into living enriching place, rather than a stale museum of the past. Anyone who has ever visited a NT property knows that the NT preserve buildings magnificently, but frequently allow everything else to wither. We have all experienced that flatness, the uniformity and depersonalisation of visiting an NT property. This lack of emotional connectedness and how properties communicate their sense of the place, time and person is the story here and all-in-all its a gripping story - very well told. I particularly liked the description of the tension between the NT as a national corporate heritage entity and 'the donor family'. It is a symbiotic relationship - the donor family, like many others, find themselves required by the Government to 'hand-over' their properties in order to pay punitive wealth distribution 'inheritance' taxes or (lets be honest) face prison. To call them 'donor families' is like calling us all tax donors! However the NT realises that a stately home pulls in the punters better than a stately house - hence it 'allows' the family to live-in it. This creates real human tension; as the family with the historical emotional investment have 'no-say' in anything and the paid employees 'resent' 'the cuckoo in the nest'. This government sponsored removal of property and the placing of families in this twilight zone of belonging, but not belonging is described carefully, neutrally and without bitterness. A very thought provoking book which hopefully will be required reading for senior officers of the NT, but won't be! There were some excellent pictures in the book. The style was easy to read and the language was precise and well chosen. The only draw back and its nit picking - is that the opening of the book where he describes the Kent country, while setting the scene, is meandering and in my opinion over-long and takes some effort to get into. If the NT uses this book as a blue-print it could breath new life into the visitor experience at Sissinghurst and elsewhere.

[Helen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautifully written with this writer's usual sense of place and love of landscape. After his father's death, he had the right (or did he?) to libe in the property which had been bought by his famous grandparents, but had since been made over to the National Trust. Although at that point the understanding was that the heirs would continue to be able to live in the house, the arrival of a young family threw up a few fairly fundamental issues for the Trust, who tried to impose a number of difficult conditions on them. Presumably these were resolved, but it struck a sour note at the beginning. Adam Nicolson's vision of trying to integrate farm/restaurant/shop in a way that made the land around the estate, not self-sufficient exactly, but at least partially able to provide some of its own produce. This is the story of the beginning of that process, interpolated with chapters on the history of the estate from the earliest records up to the famous grandparents, Harold Nicolson and Vita Sackville-West, who rescued it from ruin and created the garden. Interesting too on the tensions which probably must always exist between the Trust and its "donor families", and of course the issue of change in any place where there are conflicting ideas and other groups of people who are attached to a particular way of doing things. Some of the comments made are extraordinarily rude (one person described the family's arrival as "white trash" moving in). The project finally got off the ground in 2007 and the book was published in 2008, which was early days, hence "unfinished". It would be interesting to see how it has gone, ten years on.

[Pamela Conley · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. I would give it 4 1/2 stars if that were an option. My only issue with the book is the historical time can sometimes jump in ways you aren't expecting and the author presumes a prior knowledge of his father and grandparents that I didn't have. I enjoyed the well researched history of the land including the ice age. The conversation about the construction and then deconstruction of the manner over time is realistic with out being flowery or depressing. The frank debate/discussion about big agriculture vs. the organic local food movement with the pros and cons of both is well presented as is the need to keep the past available for reference while continuing to move forward to the future. I read this book with no prior knowledge of the author, his family history, or of Sissinghurst Castle. I am engaged and intrigued enough to look for more books about these people and this place. If you enjoy: old English history, renovation, gardening, or discussions about agriculture you will like this book.

[Carolyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was expecting a book about a garden, but I got a whole story, a sweeping and precisely tailored epic about a specific estate across time and Nicolson’s own efforts to make it what it can be, what it should be. This is a book about placemaking.

He loves it and grew up there, but it’s owned by the National Trust and his goal to restore it into a working, sustainable, useful, beautiful farm had to be achieved BY COMMITTEE. I am in awe.

This book filled in so many gaps in my knowledge about things like the history of the county of Kent, and pollarding a forest so you can harvest wood on a 12-year cycle, and Queen Mary’s exchequer guy who was one of the persecutors from Foxe’s Book of Martyrs, and how you make bricks (pink bricks!!), and early British naming conventions that sound suspiciously like the Shire. I’m thinking Tolkien MUST have grown up in Kent because the feel is so exact. I should look that up. Tolkien hated how the industrial revolution ruined the countryside, and he would love Nicolson’s restoration work so much.