"If you want a book to dip into, there is always something interesting to find. And if you want to be amused, exasperated or challenged, then read the lot. The most important thing is that on every page, Richardson takes gardens and gardening seriously." Thinkin Gardens "A hugely entertaining read with pieces that provide just the right amount of venom" Gardens Illustrated "The most independent, thoughtful, challenging gardening critic writing now. Every article here makes entertaining reading as well as being well worth pondering." -- David Sexton Evening Standard Best Gardening Books of 2016 "Incisive, witty, opinionated and thought-provoking, its subject matter is engagingly eclectic." -- Fionnuala Fallon Irish Times "A collection of short pieces by the marvellously opinionated, self-assured author and historian Tim Richardson...genuinely stimulating." -- Jane Powers Sunday Times Ireland "Informed criticism of what contemporary designers are up to is hard to find, but you can depend on Tim Richards - the best, indeed almost the only, garden polemicist we've got." -- Ursula Buchan Spectator "A collection of lively articles by one of the most intelligent garden critics writing today. Richardson is not afraid to prod, tease and question received opinion." -- Caroline Donald Sunday Times "Witty and full of perceptive comment." Times Literary Supplement "Tim Richardson is our most critically intelligent, observant and humorous garden historian." -- David Sexton "Noone writes better than the English gardening scene than Tim Richardson. He has a formidable range of reference and a brilliant way with words." -- Anna Pavord

Tim Richardson is a garden historian, journalist and critic. His books include The New English Garden (2013), The Arcadian Friends: Inventing the English Landscape Garden (2007), Great Gardens of America (2009), and Oxford College Gardens (2015). He writes regularly for newspapers and magazines including the Daily Telegraph, the New York Times, Gardens Illustrated and the Garden Design Journal. He is also the author of Oxford University's course on the history of the English landscape garden, and advises the National Trust on landscape conservation. In 2014-15 he was visiting professor in landscape art at Vienna University of Arts. He is the founder-director of the Chelsea Fringe, the alternative gardens festival.