Garden design began in West Asia and spread through Europe. This book tells how, in the British Isles, it flourished to an extraordinary degree. Following the historical method in Tom Turner’s books on Asian gardens (2010) and European gardens (2011), it uses almost 1000 colour photographs, plans and style diagrams to provide a word and image history of garden design. Individual chapters cover the Celtic, Roman, Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, Neoclassical, Romantic, Arts and Crafts, Modern and Postmodern periods. Additional information about the gardens in the book is available on the Gardenvisit.com website, which the author edits http://www.gardenvisit.com/history_theory/british_gardens_companion
"A guide to an understanding of the ideas we bring to bear in making our own gardens and enjoying those of others" - The RHS Garden magazine "Tom Turner appears to be on a mission to write the definitive historical account of gardens. He has already covered European and Asian gardens, and has now delivered an account of the development of gardens closer to home. The latest arrival delivers a narrative mix of academic research interspersed with idiosyncratic observations, balanced with photos and diagrams articulating the key design principles of the reviewed sites and historical periods."— Darryl Moore, Garden Design Journal Review of Asian Gardens: "Here Turner—with his characteristic use of summary diagrams and tightly structured analyses—charges through polytheist, Islamic, Hindu, Buddhist, Daoist, and Shinto gardens of West, South, East, and North Asia, with a welcome concluding chapter on abstract modernism. Some readers may be troubled by Turner’s reductionist approach, yet his books pack much between their covers in a manner that is at once quirky, refreshing, and stimulating." - Journal of Australian Garden History