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The Laskett Roy Strong

The Laskett By Roy Strong

The Laskett by Roy Strong


£3.49
New RRP £8.99
Condition - Very Good
Only 2 left

Summary

Presents a portrait of a marriage expressed through the vision and mystery of creating a garden. This book is a story of someone who, with his wife, has been at the centre of the arts for half a century. It is a great love affair, a haunting and human tale of a garden as the domain of ghosts and as the habitat of memory.

The Laskett Summary

The Laskett by Roy Strong

This is a portrait of a marriage expressed through the vision and mystery of creating a garden. Neither the author, Roy Strong, nor his wife, the designer Julia Trevelyan Oman, had foreseen this when they eloped and married in 1971. More than thirty years later they found themselves surrounded by the largest and most important formal garden established in this country since 1945. But it is not so much the horticultural triumph that will grip the reader as what this garden on the Welsh Borders in Herefordshire came to mean in the lives of its creators. Into the Laskett they etched their own biographies, including many of the people who crossed their lives and are commemorated within it. That galaxy embraces not only garden icons, like Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe and Ian Hamilton Finlay, but figures as varied as the photographer Sir Cecil Beaton, the painter John Piper and the fashion designer Jean Muir. It also enshrines memories of the great choreographer, Sir Frederick Ashton, of the Prince of Wales and his garden at Highgrove, as well as a colourful pageant of minor characters from mole catchers to cats. The Laskett is the unique story of someone who, with his wife, has been at the centre of the arts for half a century. A great love affair, a haunting and human tale of a garden as the domain of ghosts and as the habitat of memory, within its confines can be found both joy and happiness as well as the tears of tragedy. No-one who reads this book will put it down unmoved.

The Laskett Reviews

A funny, touching and charming book - as much a portrait of a marriage as a garden - full of delightful pen portraits of people and places' THE TIMES; 'The tale of a garden...a paradise of love and hope...so steeped in the memories of its creators that it reads like an autobiography' COUNTRY LIFE

About Roy Strong

Sir Roy Strong is well known as an historian and garden writer, lecturer, critic, columnist and regular contributor to both radio and television. He was Director of the National Portrait Gallery from 1967 to 1973 and of the V&A from 1974 to 1987. In 1980 he was awarded the prestigious Shakespeare Prize by the FVS Foundation of Hamburg in recognition of his contribution to the arts in the UK. He has published a number of highly acclaimed books and his recent publications include The Story of Britain, The Spirit of Britain, A Country Life, Feast: A History of Grand Eating and his own diaries. Sir Roy lives in Herefordshire. Sadly his wife, the film, television and theatre designer, Julia Trevelyan Oman, died in 2003.

Additional information

GOR002983447
9780553815191
0553815199
The Laskett by Roy Strong
Used - Very Good
Paperback
Transworld Publishers Ltd
20051001
256
N/A
Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
This is a used book - there is no escaping the fact it has been read by someone else and it will show signs of wear and previous use. Overall we expect it to be in very good condition, but if you are not entirely satisfied please get in touch with us

Customer Reviews - The Laskett