Synopsis
The Garden Against Time is the No.1 Sunday Times bestseller from acclaimed writer Olivia Laing; a passionate, epic exploration of the power and possibilities of gardens.
'What a wonderful book this is' – Nigel Slater
When Olivia Laing began to restore a walled garden in Suffolk, an overgrown Eden of unusual plants, the work drew them into an exhilarating investigation of paradise and its long association with gardens.
Moving between the real and the imagined, from Milton’s Paradise Lost to a wartime sanctuary in Italy, to a grotesque aristocratic pleasure ground funded by slavery, Laing interrogates the sometimes shocking cost of making paradise on earth.
But the story of the garden can also be a place of rebel outposts and communal dreams, from the improbable queer utopia conjured by Derek Jarman on the beach at Dungeness to the vision of a common Eden cultivated by William Morris. New modes of living can and have been attempted amidst the flower beds, experiments that could prove vital in the coming era of radical change.
‘This book is what we need right now: paradise, regained’ – Philip Hoare
‘Every generation gets one perfect book about gardens and this is ours’ – Julia Bell
‘Prepare yourself to be enchanted’ – Jilly Cooper
‘The most magical writing’ – Jeremy Lee
‘I felt doubly alive after reading it’ – Celia Paul
‘Quite literally unputdownable’ – Jinny Blom
‘A book for thinking gardeners everywhere’ – Mary Keen
Details
06 March 2025
9781529066708Reviews
Laing belongs in an as-yet-undefined and perhaps undefinable class of prose artists who blend feeling and analysis, speculation and research, wit and instruction as they track down the elusive patterns and inescapable contradictions of modern experienceNew York Times
Buzzing and epic . . . like all Laing’s works, this one is a joyful expansion on the meaning of the subject it undertakes . . . The history of gardens and gardening is a fascinating subject, but The Garden Against Time asks for more. Laing seeks a communal space where we can cherish what is most beautiful about being alive. The possiblities are what matterWashington Post
What a wonderful book this is. I loved the enchanting and beautifully written story but also the fascinating and thoughtful excursions along the wayNigel Slater
A sharp and enthralling memoir of the garden’s contradiction: dream and reality, life and death, the fascination of cultivation and the political horrors that it can disguiseNeil Tennant
