Roald Dahl was a spy, ace fighter pilot, chocolate historian and medical inventor. He was also the author of Matilda, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The BFG and many more brilliant stories.

Roald Dahl

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Ulrika Grönlund

Learn everything you need to know to grow dahlias successfully. 
 
 Featuring a directory of 222 popular varieties each accompanied by full-colour photographs, Dahlias celebrates the many different forms of this beautiful bloom and showcases how to fill your garden with colour, texture and wildlife. 
 
 This book covers all you need to know on successfully planting, growing, flowering and eventually storing your tubers for the next year. Discover the history and botany of dahlias and get inspiration for beautiful colour combinations and companion plants. 
 
 An ultimate source of knowledge and inspiration for both new and experienced growers, Dahlias is a celebration of this incredible flower!

Dahlias

Inspiration, Cultivation and Care for 222 Varieties

Rosina Harrison

'I was able to get on well with everyone below stairs and above, or so I thought until I began working for Lady Astor...' 
 
In 1929, Yorkshire lass Rosina Harrison became personal maid to Lady Astor: the first female Member of Parliament to take her seat and wife of one of England's wealthiest lords. 
 
Lady Astor was brilliant yet tempestuous, but outspoken Rose gave as good as she got. For 35 years the battle of wills and wits raged between the two women, until an unlikely friendship began to emerge. 
 
The Lady's Maid is a captivating insight into the great wealth 'upstairs' but also the endless work 'downstairs', but it is Rose's unique relationship with Lady Astor that makes this book a truly enticing read. 
 
Please note, The Lady's Maid is the new title for the book originally published as Rose.

The Lady's Maid

My Life in Service

Mark Wallington

Mark Wallington has a dream. He is going to change the face of British comedy. 
 
Unfortunately for the residents of north London, he's going to finance this dream by becoming a gardener. 
 
The result is The Day Job, an account of a year spent working in other people's gardens: people like Mrs Fleming who is convinced there is buried treasure in the bottom bed; Mr Walters who is trying to create a fascist state policed by gnomes in his well-guarded plot in Gospel Oak; Mrs Glover who is probably the most attractive woman living in Britain; and poor Mr Nugent, who likes to save his urine in jam jars and pour it over his compost. 
 
Over four seasons Wallington crosses Hampstead Heath from job to job. He survives brushes with the evil contract gardeners who keep trying to knock him off his bicycle. He strives to impress literary agent Herman Gapp who might represent him - depending on what sort of job he does on Gapp's Alpine Terrace. He even finds time to fall for a housecleaner-cum-actor named Helen, as he becomes part of a strange band of artistes, each with a day job of their own, all waiting for that first break. 
 
This is the story of long nights spent in the back room of a pub trying to write unsolicited scripts, and of much longer days spent trying to understand the British and their strange obsession with gardening.

The Day Job

Adventures of a Jobbing Gardener

Arthur Parkinson

Most of us want a dog, or a cat, or a pony when we are young &ndash; but for Arthur Parkinson, it was always hens. Growing up in an ex-mining town in Nottinghamshire, the other kids in the playground called him 'Chicken Boy'. The quiet fulfilment of keeping hens became his sanctuary, a tonic for mental and physical health, a connection with his family and the natural world. Illustrated with Arthur's own characterful watercolours and photographs of his &lsquo;girls&rsquo;, Chicken Boy is a one-of-a-kind memoir of a life in nature.

Chicken Boy

My Life With Hens

Tim Richardson

Between 1715 and 1750, a group of politicans and poets, farmers and businessmen, heiresses and landowners began to experiment with the phenomenon that was to become the English landscape garden. Arguably the greatest British art form ever invented, these gardens were built to charm and delight, to shock and inspire all who visited. That these gardens - including Castle Howard, Stowe, Painshill and Rousham - are still so popular with visitors today is a testament to the innovation and passion of this extraordinary group of eccentrics and visionaries. 
 
The Arcadian Friends takes a highly engaging perspective on the politics and culture of England during the Enlightenment. At the same time it will be required reading for the legions of fans of the great gardens of England. 
 
Tim Richardson introduces us to a period of poltical and personal intrigue, where fantastic biblical landscapes competed for space with temples to sexual freedom; and where the installation of a water feature was a political act. The Arcadian Friends tells the story of a collection of fascinating characters whose influence changed the landscape of Britain for ever.

The Arcadian Friends

Geraldine Bedell

"We didn't intend to build a house. We just wanted to move - somewhere a bit bigger, with more of a garden: commonplace enough ambitions, especially for families with young children, especially in Britain, where property is wealth, and so, in some vague and unexamined sense, identity. Not that we were thinking about anything like that." 
 
 
The true and very funny story of how journalist, Geraldine Bedell and her husband Charlie Leadbeater, with no savings and no knowledge of architecture nearly make themselves bankrupt in an attempt to build their dream home. Far more than that, it's about the ultimate fantasy - creating your own made to measure living space. 
 
The Handmade House tells the story, alternately comical and horrifying, of one family's ambitious and inept attempt to build the perfect home.

The Handmade House

A Love Story Set in Concrete

Tom Hart Dyke

Tom Hart Dyke has a bit of a thing about plants. You might call it an obsession. You might call him certifiable, in fact. But it's a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a large ramshackle country estate and an obsession with plant collecting could want for only one thing - in Tom's case it's a walled garden containing examples of plants collected from every corner of the globe. 
 
Tom's infectious enthusiasm for anything with chlorophyll in it and the hugely ambitious World Garden project he has undertaken at his family home, Lullingstone Castle, in Kent have been documented in a 12-part television series for BBC 2. The first six parts (Save Lullingstone Castle) were shown in spring 2006, and the second six episodes (Return to Lullingstone Castle) in spring 2007. 
 
Tom's attempts to set up the World Garden aren't exactly straightforward. You might imagine, for example, that the easiest way to start preparing the ground inside the walled Elizabethan garden which he transforms into the main part of the world garden would be to enlist the help of a few people and a lot of hard digging. Well not for Tom, who enlists instead two large pigs, who do indeed do a great job of turning over the earth and fertilising it with great organic manure. But the problem is that they keep escaping into the Hart Dyke family burial plot next door where they start digging up Tom's ancestors... 
 
The World Garden is created to bring together a truly amazing collection of plants from every continent and so to show the global origins of the plants we all grow in our gardens. It's already establishing itself as a tourist attraction of some note as well as an educational resource. 
 
This is a book for all those who bought Tim Smit's Lost Gardens of Heligan. It's stuffed full of fascinating botanical information as well as the story of Tom's hapless struggle to overcome huge logistical nightmares. It's a riveting, hilarious story of English eccentricity in full bloom.

An Englishman's Home

The Adventures of an Eccentric Gardener

Monty Don

What do our gardens say about us? 
 
Monty Don has spent many years travelling the world, from America to Japan, from Italy and the Adriatic to Spain and the Mediterranean, getting under the skin of a country through its gardens and gardening traditions. In British Gardens, he finally brings his focus to home, journeying from the northern tip of Scotland to the Cornish coast, seeking to understand what our gardens tell us about ourselves as a nation. 
 
Encompassing historical gardens and public parks, mountains and seascapes, urban gardens and rural nurseries, glasshouses and community plots, each encounter is another link in a larger story of British identity: marks of ingenuity, eccentricity, and adaptation to changing environments. From Northumbria’s Alnwick Gardens and Beatrix Potter’s Lake District farmhouse to the rewilded walled garden on the Knepp Estate and the story of Britain’s first garden gnome, Monty’s account brings in an astonishing range of British experience. 
 
Accompanied by a landmark five-part series on BBC2, and illustrated by stunning photography from Monty’s long-time collaborator Derry Moore, British Gardens is a definitive, and uniquely British, account of a nation like no other.

British Gardens

Brendan O'Carroll

The first and only official Mrs Brown's Boys book, Mrs Brown's Family Handbook uniquely takes us into the wonderful world of Britain's favourite potty-mouthed mother and housewife. 
 
Packed with tips for running the perfect home - why every mammy's secret weapon is a tea towel; how to clean up Granddad - as well as contributions from members of the extended family - Dermot's Guide to Farting; Winnie's Joy of Seks - Mrs Brown dispenses advice in her own inimical fecking style. 
 
The perfect gift for the house proud and the slovenly, Mrs Brown's Family Handbook should offend all who receive it.

Mrs Brown's Family Handbook

Clare Foggett

Originally the small plots where rural workers grew the vegetables, herbs and flowers they needed, cottage gardens were romanticised and reimagined by nostalgic Victorian gardeners into a bucolic idyll. The style has endured ever since: drifts of colourful perennials mingle with fragrant roses, boisterous self-seeders teeter on the brink of chaos, fruit and vegetables scramble through rustic supports. Small in scale, wildlife friendly, natural and organic, 'old-fashioned' cottage gardens are perfectly in tune with gardening in the modern day. 
 
This book will feature 20 of the most beautiful examples of cottage gardens in the UK today; from iconic gardens open to the public such as Great Dixter and Charleston in Sussex and Sissinghurst in Kent, to the lesser seen private spaces of notable creatives. 
 
Abundant and dream-like, these gardens will transport you into a distinctly British world of peonies, foxgloves, roses and dahlias, with interviews with the designers and head gardeners featured to provide plenty of inspiration for bringing your own cottage garden to life.

Beauty & Abundance

British Cottage Gardens

Jane Moore

Discover how to fill your garden with flowers all year round, with seasonal planting inspiration, growing tips, plant pairings and flower profiles. 
 
Creating a garden that brims with colour, scent and beauty throughout the year is every gardener’s goal. Planting for a Year of Flowers explores 52 flowers that can be planted to create an enduring seasonal garden brimming with blooms. This charmingly illustrated guide explores the best plants to grow, including how to plant them, when they flower and the strongest plant pairings. 
 
Following the year from spring to winter, expert gardener Jane Moore shares the lessons she has learnt from years of growing. Through plant profiles, get to know each flower, their individual needs and the ideal environments in which they will thrive. 
 
As you flick through the pages of this beautiful book, discover spring blooms like scented tulips and dwarf daffodils, perfect peonies for the summer months, show-stopping autumn dahlias and roses that flower through the depths of winter. With an illustration and overview for each plant, this book will help you to create a garden you will never stop enjoying.

Planting for a Year of Flowers

Grow Your Garden Through the Year

Nick Offerman

"Want to have some fun? Little Woodchucks is for every kid and 50-year-old woman who wants to make something cool with their hands." - Amy Poehler 
 
Many know Nick Offerman from his role as Ron Swanson in Parks and Recreation. But in addition to acting and comedy, woodworking is one of the great passions of Nick’s life. (The others are his wife, family, and friends, his dogs, music, cheese curds, the great outdoors, bacon and eggs, his bride, the Chicago Cubs, puzzles, Beef Wellington, the theatre, his canoe, his wife, Wilco, and single-malt Scotch whisky.) In Little Woodchucks, Nick and his team at the Offerman Woodshop open their doors to woodworkers of all ages, sharing their passion for their craft and showing you how to make a range of their most popular and accessible projects. From carved twig animals and box kites to tool boxes and simple hayloft benches, these twelve family-friendly projects are the perfect way to discover the joys of woodworking, and share the love of crafting with others. 
 
Written with Nick’s signature wry humour an charm, and with clear illustrated step-by-step instructions, Little Woodchucks is a quality piece of bookery from an American original.

Little Woodchucks

Offerman Workshop’s Guide to Tools and Tomfoolery

Len Howard

Enter the secret lives of Britain's ordinary garden birds and the brilliant, unconventional woman who opened her doors to them. 
 
In the late 1930s, Len Howard packed up her life in London, bought a plot of land in Sussex and built herself a little house there. This was to be Bird Cottage, a place where the doors of the house were open to the birds of the garden – great tits, blue tits, robins, blackbirds, willow warblers and many others. Len lived the rest of her life alongside her bird neighbours, with some sleeping in her bedroom and many flitting in and out all day long. 
 
This is the book she wrote about the birds – a study not just of their behaviour but their individual personalities. We learn about their intelligence, emotional lives, and characters, their capacity for play and humour, the range of their song, their likes and dislikes, and their bond with Len. 
 
Enchanting, life-enriching, revelatory and completely original, this is a gorgeous evocation of a life lived in intimate contact with nature and a book about birds unlike any other. 
 
‘A unique, engaging and elegant insight into the lives of our precious and magical songbirds’ Arthur Parkinson 
 
‘A quiet revelation of attentiveness and sympathy. It impressed and moved me very much’ Steven Lovatt, author of Birdsong in a Time of Silence

Birds as Individuals

Mollie Moran

'No one ever thinks of the poor scullery maid. The lowest of the low' 
 
When Mollie Browne became a 'skivvy' in a stately London townhouse aged just 14, she quickly learned that a large amount of elbow grease and a sense of humour would be tantamount to surviving there. Through Mollie's eyes we are offered a fascinating glimpse into London's invisible 'downstairs', a world that has long-since vanished: cooking huge roast dinners, polishing doorknobs, scrubbing steps - and covering up her employers' scandals. Going to dances with her fellow servants and flirting with Harrods' errand boys, she had no idea that the oncoming war in 1939 would change her world, and that of those she served, forever...

Aprons and Silver Spoons

The heartwarming memoirs of a 1930s scullery maid

Trevor Dolby

One day a Londoner and his wife went a little crazy and bought a crumbling house in deepest Languedoc. It was love at first sight. 
 
Slowly the family make this house a home, they get to know the locals and these busy English discover slower joys - the scent of thyme and lavender, the warmth of sun on stone walls, nights hung with stars, silence in the hills, the importance of history and memory, the liberation of laughter and the secrets of fig jam. 
 
One Place de l'Eglise is a love letter - to a house, a village, a country - from an outsider who discovers you can never be a stranger when you're made to feel so at home. Old houses never belong to people. People belong to them.

One Place de l’Eglise

A Year in Provence for the 21st century

Marc Hamer

Beloved author Marc Hamer writes about finding refuge in his tiny back garden in this highly original story of childhood, old age, and the restorative power of gardens. As a child, he kindled a deep love of the earth by watching plants and insects and exploring the world through a stack of old encyclopaedias he found in the shed. Now an old man, he creates a garden for himself in the neglected plot behind his house. 
 
A little book with a big heart: the insights glow as vivid as a flowerbed. If you want to be inspired, or you've lost your belief in the goodness of this world, this could be for you. 
 
'A sublime meditation on life, love, nature and family, woven with the wisdom gained through a life well lived' Lee Schofield, author of Wild Fell 
 
'A book of great but tender power' Charles Foster, author of Being a Beast 
 
'Patterned with Hamer's gifts for observation, compression, and tone' New Yorker 
 
'Rich and tender' New York Times

Spring Rain

Andrea Wulf

One January morning in 1734, cloth merchant Peter Collinson hurried down to the docks at London's Custom House to collect cargo just arrived from John Bartram in the American colonies. But it was not bales of cotton that awaited him, but plants and seeds... 
 
Over the next forty years, Bartram would send hundreds of American species to England, where Collinson was one of a handful of men who would foster a national obsession and change the gardens of Britain forever: Philip Miller, author of the bestselling Gardeners Dictionary; the Swede Carl Linnaeus, whose standardised botanical nomenclature popularised botany; the botanist-adventurer Joseph Banks and his colleague Daniel Solander who both explored the strange flora of Tahiti and Australia on Captain Cook's Endeavour. 
 
This is the story of these men - friends, rivals, enemies, united by a passion for plants. Set against the backdrop of the emerging empire and the uncharted world beyond, The Brother Gardeners tells the story how Britain became a nation of gardeners.

The Brother Gardeners

Botany, Empire and the Birth of an Obsession

Penelope Lively

Penelope Lively has always been a keen gardener. This book is partly a memoir of her own life in gardens: the large garden at home in Cairo where she spent most of her childhood, her grandmother's garden in a sloping Somerset field, then two successive Oxfordshire gardens of her own, and the smaller urban garden in the North London home she lives in today. It is also a wise, engaging and far-ranging exploration of gardens in literature, from Paradise Lost to Alice in Wonderland, and of writers and their gardens, from Virginia Woolf to Philip Larkin.

Life in the Garden

Claire Ratinon

A powerful work of memoir and storytelling that will change the way we think about the natural world. 
 
Like many diasporic people of colour, Claire Ratinon grew up feeling cut off from the natural world. She lived in cities, reluctant to be outdoors and stuck with the belief that success and status could fill the space where belonging was absent. 
 
But a chance encounter with a rooftop farm was the start of a journey that caused her to rethink the life she'd been creating and her beliefs about who she ought to be. Enlivened, she turned her hand to growing food in London before finding herself yearning for a small parcel of land to call her own. 
 
Unearthed tells the story of her leaving the city for the English countryside - and her first garden - in the hope of forging a pathway towards the embrace of the natural world and a sense of belonging cultivated on her own terms. 
 
'Ratinon's story will change hearts and minds' Alice Vincent 
 
'A beautiful book about nature...I recommend it' Afua Hirsch, author of Brit(ish)

Unearthed

On race and roots, and how the soil taught me I belong

Adrian Tinniswood

From the bestselling author of The Long Weekend: a wild, sad and sometimes hilarious tour of the English country house after the Second World War, when Swinging London collided with aristocratic values. 
 
'Preposterously entertaining' Observer 
'Brilliant' Daily Telegraph 
'Rollicking' Sunday Times 
 
As the sun set slowly on the British Empire in the years after the Second World War, the nation's stately homes were in crisis. Tottering under the weight of rising taxes and a growing sense that they had no place in twentieth-century Britain, hundreds of ancestral piles were dismantled and demolished. 
 
Yet - perhaps surprisingly - many of these great houses survived, as dukes and duchesses clung desperately to their ancestral seats and tenants' balls gave way to rock concerts, safari parks and day trippers. From the Rolling Stones rocking Longleat to Christine Keeler rocking Cliveden, Noble Ambitions takes us on a lively tour of these crumbling halls of power. 
 
* A Daily Telegraph Book of the Year * 
* Longlisted for the William MB Berger Prize for British Art History *

Noble Ambitions

The Fall and Rise of the Post-War Country House

Carol Klein

This charming insight into what each season and month of the year brings for a cottage garden will capture the imagination and inspire any gardener (expert or novice) to get out and about, grab a spade and get your hands dirty! Written by the BBC's Carol Klein, full of practical advice and tips, and full of stunning photography, this is a book truly to savour... 
 
'Her energy, knowledge and enthusiasm are an inspiration in every month of the year, and this very special book will be a real gem for all garden lovers.' -- Radio Times 
'Beautifully designed, this one is too good to miss!' -- Home & Country 
'Vibrant, informative, inspirational and personal... Klein's heartfelt love poem to her beautiful garden.' -- Gardens Magazine 
'A delight to read' -- ***** Reader review 
'A wonderful garden book from a wonderful gardener' -- ***** Reader review 
'What can I say? I bought it when it first came out in 2011 and it STILL hasn't made it on to a bookshelf as I am constantly dipping into it' -- ***** Reader review 
'A must have for gardeners old and new' -- ***** Reader review 
'A wonderful book which I found hard to put down' -- ***** Reader review 
'So inspiring!' -- ***** Reader review 
 
*********************************************************************************************** 
In this wonderful gardening journal, the BBC's Carol Klein, with characteristic warmth, eloquence and infectious enthusiasm, tells us the story of a year in her beautiful garden at Glebe Cottage. 
 
With superb photography throughout, she takes us on a procession through the seasons, as she plans and plants, sows seeds and nurtures cuttings, tends the borders, and harvests her crops. 
 
Her energy, knowledge and passion will be an inspiration to gardeners old and new alike in every month of the year.

Life in a Cottage Garden

a delightful, personal account of a year spent delighting in and cherishing a beautiful garden from the BBC’s Carol Klein

Jason Hazeley

Joel Morris

These delightful books are the latest in the series of Ladybird books which have been specially planned to help grown-ups with the world about them. 
 
The large clear script, the careful choice of words, the frequent repetition and the thoughtful matching of text with pictures all enable grown-ups to think they have taught themselves to cope. The subject of the books will greatly appeal to grown-ups. 
 
The eight books in the series feature original Ladybird artwork alongside brilliantly funny, brand new text. The other books in the series are: 
 
- The Ladybird Book of Mindfulness 
 
- The Ladybird Book of Sheds 
 
- The Ladybird Book of The Hipster 
 
- The Ladybird Book of the Mid-Life Crisis 
 
- The Ladybird Book of the Hangover 
 
- The Ladybird Book of Dating 
 
- How it Works: The Husband 
 
- How it Works: The Wife

This delightful book is the latest in the series of Ladybird books which have been specially planned to help grown-ups with the world about them. 
 
The large clear script, the careful choice of words, the frequent repetition and the thoughtful matching of text with pictures all enable grown-ups to think they have taught themselves to cope. The subject of the book will greatly appeal to grown-ups. 
 
The eight books in the series feature original Ladybird artwork alongside brilliantly funny, brand new text. The other books in the series are: 
 
- The Ladybird Book of Mindfulness 
 
- The Ladybird Book of Dating 
 
- The Ladybird Book of The Hipster 
 
- The Ladybird Book of the Mid-Life Crisis 
 
- The Ladybird Book of the Hangover 
 
- How it Works: The Husband 
 
- How it Works: The Wife

The Ladybird Book of the Shed

Rob Beattie

This funny and charming book opens the door to the many possibilities of the garden shed - just about the last male bastion left in the modern household.  It is packed with 101 tasks, tools, simple projects, science experiments and ideas of all sorts for having hours of uninterrupted fun. Whether you want to rediscover the lost art of 'make do and mend', create some useful knick-knacks, explore model-making opportunities from little yachts made from matchsticks,  wooden toy tractors or exquisite toothbrush stands, dabble with some simple experiments with optical illusions, static electricity, vibrating glasses or just enjoy a spot of peace and quiet with the radio and a glass of beer, this book is a treasure trove of great ideas. Beautifully illustrated with good old fashioned line drawings and brimming with bright ideas to keep men entertained for hours, it is set to become a cult classic. Welcome to the sanctuary of the shed!

101 Things To Do In A Shed

Terry Walton

'Every time he appears on the programme we feel that life is worth living. He has that power to lift your spirits.' - Jeremy Vine 
 
Terry Walton has kept an allotment in the Rhondda Valley in South Wales for over fifty years. He started when he was four, helping on his father's plot on the side of the mountain, cutting bracken and collecting sheep manure to feed the vegetables. 
 
He was farming his own plot at eleven and he went on to build an allotment empire, selling his vegetables and flowers to local customers. The proceeds paid for his first car, a canary yellow Ford Popular, when he was just seventeen. Then, in 2006, after half a decade of happy gardening, Terry's allotment was adopted by the Jeremy Vine Show and he became an unlikely media star. 
 
In this absorbing and entertaining memoir, Terry documents how the valley has changed over the years, his own conversion to organic gardening, and the colourful characters he meets; interspersing his anecdotes with topical tips, family recipes and quirky line drawings. 
 
My Life on a Hillside Allotment is the perfect read for gardeners, allotmenteers and anyone who loves the great outdoors.

My Life on a Hillside Allotment

Alan Titchmarsh

Home to sixteen generations of the Cavendish family over nearly five centuries, Chatsworth has played host to as rich a cast of characters as you are likely to find anywhere in the world. They have been, in turn, loved, reviled, extravagant, parsimonious, reclusive and sociable, but they have all left their mark on the landscape that surrounds their fabled family home, the Palace of the Peaks. 
 
Follow Alan Titchmarsh into this irresistible world of visionaries, mavericks and English eccentrics. 
 
Meet the indomitable Bess of Hardwick and her second husband Sir William Cavendish, who bought the Manor of Chatsworth for £600 in 1549 and built the first house there. Since then, the Estate has evolved with each generation, from the 4th Duke and Lancelot 'Capability' Brown in the 1700s, to the Bachelor Duke and the indefatigable Joseph Paxton the following century. From Andrew and Deborah Devonshire, who inherited an Estate that was on its knees in 1950 and ensured its survival when all seemed lost, to the 12th Duke and Duchess, Stoker and Amanda Devonshire, who have taken the reins since 2004. Alan explores the gardens they created. He discovers the real-life stories behind each horticultural triumph and architectural wonder, and we see how this great house and estate has flourished in all its beauty through changing times 
 
With stunning, specially commissioned photography alongside long-forgotten images and memorabilia newly unearthed in the estate archives, this landmark new book is a glorious way to experience the magic of Chatsworth, past and present, wherever you are.

Chatsworth

The gardens and the people who made them

Jane Brown

Lancelot Brown changed the face of eighteenth-century England, designing country estates and mansions, moving hills and making flowing lakes and serpentine rivers, a magical world of green. This English landscape style spread across Europe and the world. At home, it proved so pleasing that Brown's influence spread into the lowland landscape at large, and into landscape painting. He stands behind our vision, and fantasy, of rural England. 
 
In this vivid, lively biography, based on detailed research, Jane Brown paints an unforgettable picture of the man, his work, his happy domestic life, and his crowded world. She follows the life of the jovial yet elusive Mr Brown, from his childhood and apprenticeship in rural Northumberland, through his formative years at Stowe, the most famous garden of the day. 
 
His innovative ideas, and his affable and generous nature, led to a meteoric rise to a Royal Appointment in 1764 and his clients and friends ranged from statesmen like the elder Pitt to artists and actors like David Garrick. Riding constantly across England, Brown never ceased working until he collapsed and died in February 1783 after visiting one of his oldest clients. He was a practical man but also a visionary, always willing to try something new. As this beautifully illustrated biography shows, Brown filled England with enchantment - follies, cascades, lakes, bridges, ornaments, monuments, meadows and woods - creating views that still delight us today.

Lancelot 'Capability' Brown

The Omnipotent Magician, 1716-1783

Lancelot 'Capability' Brown, 1716-1783

The Omnipotent Magician

Stephen Anderton

Christopher Lloyd (Christo) was one of the greatest English gardeners of the twentieth century, perhaps the finest plantsman of them all. His creation is the garden at Great Dixter in East Sussex, and it is a tribute to his vision and achievement that, after his death in 2006, the Heritage Lottery Fund made a grant of £4 million to help preserve it for the nation. This enjoyable and revealing book - the first biography of Christo - is also the story of Dixter from 1910 to 2006, a unique unbroken history of one English house and one English garden spanning a century. 
 
It was Christo's father, Nathaniel, who bought the medieval manor at Dixter and called in the fashionable Edwardian architect, Lutyens, to rebuild the house and lay out the garden. And it was his mother, Daisy, who made the first wild garden in the meadows there. Christo was born at Dixter in 1921. Apart from boarding school, war service and a period at horticultural college, he spent his whole life there, constantly re-planting and enriching the garden, while turning out landmark books and exhaustive journalism. Opinionated, argumentative and gloriously eccentric, he changed the face of English gardening through his passions for meadow gardening, dazzling colours and thorough husbandry. 
 
As the baby of a family of six - five boys and a girl - Christo was stifled by his adoring mother. Music-loving and sports-hating, he knew the Latin names of plants before he was eight. This fascinating book reveals what made Christo tick by examining his relationships with his generous but scheming mother, his like-minded friends (such as gardeners Anna Pavord and Beth Chatto) and his colleagues (including his head gardener, Fergus Garrett, a plantsman in Christo's own mould).

Christopher Lloyd

His Life at Great Dixter

Alex Dingwall-Main

'The rollicking adventures of an English garden designer in Provence'  Independent 'Escapist reading-magic' The TimesAlex Dingwall-Main left London with his wife and dog nine years ago for the Luberon region of the South of France. A landscape gardener of international renown he was in search of a challenge - a new climate, a new way of gardening and a new way of life.       This is his account of gardening his way round Provence, and in particular, of attempting to restore the secret garden of M-nerbes. Situated high on the plains of the Luberon region, M-nerbes is a famously beautiful village - but this garden had long been forgotten. It trailed down over seven levels, thick with brambles and hornets' nests, almond blossom and ancient fig trees. It was an archetypal Proven-al garden and for one whole year it dominated Alex Dingwall-Main's life. From distant dreams came growth and disasters, but ultimately, the garden is reclaimed. From truffle dealers to local mayors, film star neighbours to JCB drivers and olive-tree farmers, Alex takes us on a guided tour of an extraordinary area.     Published in hardback with serialisation in The Times and major review and feature coverage, this is the enticing paperback edition of a beautifully written book on plants, people and life. Evocative and inspiring, The Luberon Garden will take you on an unforgettable journey.

The Luberon Garden

A provencal story of Apricot Blossom, Truffles and Thyme

Karen Farrington

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER AND OFFICIAL COMPANION TO THE HIT BBC SERIES 
 
BBC’s The Repair Shop is a place where Britain’s most skilled and caring craftspeople rescue and resurrect items that owners thought were beyond saving. Their shared love of craft has helped hundreds of people recover and relive cherished memories, and inspired millions to rediscover their own prized possessions. The skill required to properly restore those items may be beyond most of us, but there are small things we can all do to care for the items we love the most. How do you replenish the stuffing in your child’s beloved, tatty teddy bear, for instance? Or remove a water mark left on your wooden table? What’s the best way to prevent your leather from cracking? 
 
Direct from the Repair Shop's 'Workshop of Dreams', this ‘make do and mend’ guide collects advice and stories from each of the show’s experts, to help you understand and care for those aging treasures and heirlooms around your house or gathering dust in the garage. Whether it’s wood, ceramics, leather or silverware, you will get to know your materials, tools and terms from Britain’s best, as the Repair Shop experts share their tips on restoring and conserving, reveal their favourite tools, and provide a series of small, manageable projects that help tackle the most common problems that occur in their given medium. Their book, like the show it accompanies, with help you safeguard your sentimental legacy for generations to come.

The Repair Shop

A Make Do and Mend Handbook

The Roald Dahl Series

Penguin Readers Roald Dahl

The Roald Dahl Classic Collection

Roald Dahl’s Words for…

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Puffin Announces The Roald Dahl Classic Collection to keep author’s classic texts in print

acts you didn’t know about James and the Giant Peach

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7 juicy facts you didn’t know about James and the Giant Peach

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Matilda by Roald Dahl

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The BFG by Roald Dahl

The Kumback II by Roald Dahl

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Where to start with Roald Dahl’s books

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Which Roald Dahl hero are you?

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10 audiobooks for a listen-aloud adventure

How to be a great storyteller | The Roald Dahl Museum

How to be a great storyteller

Christmas gifts for 2025: Books for 6 to 9-year-olds

6 of the most gloriumptious Roald Dahl heroes

Are you Roald Dahl's biggest fan?

Ten hopscotchy moments in Roald Dahl books

10 hopscotchy moments in Roald Dahl books

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Download the Roald Dahl Story Day 2021 activity pack

11 inspirational quotes that celebrate books and the joy of reading

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Make your own Charlie and the Chocolate Factory costumes

Things you didn't know classic Puffin children's books

4 things you didn’t know about these classic Puffin children’s books

How to write a laugh-out-loud story by Steven Butler

How to write a laugh-out-loud funny story

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13 inspiring Roald Dahl quotes

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Make an Enormous Crocodile word game

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