Synopses & Reviews
This magnificently illustrated peopleand#8217;s history celebrates the extraordinary feats of cultivation by the working class in Britain, even if the land they toiled, planted, and loved was not their own. Spanning more than four centuries, from the earliest records of the laboring classes in the country to today, Margaret Willes's researchand#160;unearths lush gardens nurtured outside rough workersand#8217; cottages and horticultural miracles performed in blackened yards, and reveals the ingenious, sometimes devious, methods employed by determined, obsessive, and eccentric workers to make their drab surroundings bloom. She also explores the stories of the great philanthropic industrialists who provided gardens for their workforces, the fashionable rich stealing the gardening ideas of the poor, alehouse syndicates and fierce rivalries between vegetable growers, flower-fanciers cultivating exotic blooms on their city windowsills, and the rich lore handed down from gardener to gardener through generations. This is a sumptuous record of the myriad ways in which the popular cultivation of plants, vegetables, and flowers has playedand#151;and continues to playand#151;an integral role in everyday British life.
Review
'Margaret Willesand#8217;s overview of working-class gardens adds to this growing body of literature, and provides a great introduction to an often overlooked history. . .Thanks to books such as this, historians can no longer ignore the stories of these other gardens, created outside of the estate boundary.'and#8212;Clare Hickman, BBC History Magazine
Review
and#8216;Willesand#8217;s book is a careful scholarly consideration of the evidence about Britainand#8217;s humblest plots, from medieval times onwards. . .Willes has worked tirelessly to amass evidence, and the illustrations and images included in the text are particularly evocative, and often also very poignant. [They] provide the bookand#8217;s rich texture and make for delightful and often surprising reading.and#8217;and#8212;Emma Townshend, Independent on Sunday
Review
andquot;Willesandrsquo;s range is staggering. . . . Her book is a virtually inexhaustible source of pleasure. Just like a garden, in fact.andquot;andmdash;John Carey, The Sunday Times
Review
and#8216;She has succeeded in letting the individual voices of the underdogs of the gardening fraternity shout or whisper tellingly through its pages.and#8217;and#8212;Katherine Lambert, New Statesman
Review
and#8216;A bravura historical survey full of rich detail, facts and anecdotes.and#8217;and#8212;The Sunday Times
Review
'What exactly is a working-class garden in image and reality?. . .These questions, and much else, are explored in Margaret Willes's new book. . . Her best material comes from the 19th century onwards, especially in the century from 1860 to 1960.'and#8212;Robin Lane Fox, The Financial Times
Review
and#8216;Victorian industrialists and do-gooders. . .shine out like beacons of energy and determination from Margaret Willesand#8217;s marvellously illuminating book. . .Fascinating as a work of history, Willesand#8217;s book is and#8211; above all and#8211; a record of the passion that has led England to take pride in having bred a nation of gardeners.and#8217;and#8212;Miranda Seymour, Literary Review
Review
and#8216;Margaret Willesand#8217;s excellent book demonstrates how enclosure was a defining point in the British attitude to land, community, self-reliance and ownership. . .Willes writes fascinatingly of an upsurge of working-class gardening clubs that promoted gardening not only as a means of supplementing a meagre diet but as a source of delight in both competition and the beauty of flowers.and#8217;
and#8212;Lucy Lethbridge, The Financial Times
Review
and#8216;This is a welcome work of serious scholarship, which brings to the fore much that garden historians usually prefer to ignore.and#8217;and#8212;Ursula Buchan, The Spectator
Review
and#8216;From the 17th century to today, a magnificent study.and#8217;and#8212;The Sunday Times
Review
'Margaret Willes, the hollyhock of garden historians. . .finds a space of her own to raise the theory that it is ordinary gardeners who have made the biggest contribution to the greening and flowering of Britain. . .She has demonstrated that the next best thing to gardening is total immersion in a really good book about how our forebears did it. And why.and#8217;and#8212;Elizabeth Grice, The Oldie
Review
‘[A] superb new history of gardening.—Ian Jack, The Guardian Elizabeth Grice - The Oldie
Review
and#8216;[A] superb new history of gardening.and#8217;and#8212;Ian Jack, The Guardian
Review
andlsquo;Margaret Willes sets out to give voice to working-class gardeners of the past in this magnificent piece of research, wrapped up by Yale as handsomely as a cottage loaf andndash; and to be devoured slice of crusty slice: allotments, flower shows, and folklore. . . More convincingly and more eloquently than any previous garden historian, Willes shows that gardening is and#39;the popular art of Britain.and#39;and#39;andmdash;Christopher Woodward, World of Interiors Magazine
Review
andlsquo;Her excellent, scholarly celebration of the humblest of horticulturalists, from medieval times onwards, is a glorious, lavishly illustrated tribute to the redemptive power of gardening andndash; and our faith in the future as we sow tiny seeds, perhaps in our city window box, in the hope that theyandrsquo;ll blossom come spring.andrsquo;andmdash;Jackie McGlone, The Herald
Review
andlsquo;andhellip;in this wonderfully rich study, Margaret Willes reveals the forgotten history of Britainandrsquo;s working-class horticulturalistsandrsquo;andmdash;PD Smith, the Guardian.andnbsp;
About the Author
Margaret Willes is an enthusiastic gardener and the former publisher at the National Trust. Her previous books include The Making of the English Gardener: Plants, Books, and Inspiration, 15601660.