Author(s): Roy Strong

Gardening

The garden at the Laskett in Herefordshire is always described as the largest formal garden laid out in Britain since the war and one of most important and most interesting gardens of the second half of the twentieth century. Roy Strong and his wife, Julia Trevelyan Oman - two pivotal figures in the arts during the last century - created this uniquely autobiographical and historical garden over thirty years of their marriage. However, by the time Julia died in 2003, the garden at The Laskett had become overgrown and closed in on itself. And so started 'the great cull'. The Laskett garden is still 'peopled with the ghosts of nearly everyone we have loved, both living and dead', but trees and hedges have been chopped down, paths widened, vistas opened up. Light has been let in. This book is a record of the remaking of The Laskett garden, traced in Roy Strong's words and photographer Clive Boursnell's before-and-after pictures and action shots. It is an inspiration, for 'its message is one for all garden-makers. Do not be afraid to change your garden - indeed to be quite brutal to it - in order to give it new energy and excitement. 'As a piece of theatre there are few modern gardens to touch it. Stephen Lacey, Daily Telegraph