Gertrude Jekyll

In this remarkable biography, Sally Festing shows us how impressions of Gertrude Jekyll have become distorted in the popular imagination: how her real contribution to garden design is underrated, especially the profound influence she was to have upon the architect Sir Edwin Lutyens. The plain, myopic figure who stares sternly from Victorian photographs was, the author suggests, altogether more complicated, abrasive, autocratic, impatient, fun-loving, and lovable than she has ever been made out to be. An illuminating portrait of a formidable and admirable woman.