A captivating portrait of the greatest British gardens and the lords, ladies and gardeners who own and manage them. Focusing on the counties of Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire, this stunning book features 20 gardens designed by some of the leading contemporary garden designers from across the world. This beautiful corner of England has a rich tradition of garden making, which is explored in this very personal view by photographer Hugo Rittson-Thomas and journalist Victoria Summerley, both residents of this green pocket with more than its fair share of beautiful and interesting gardens. Some of the gardens are strictly private, while others are regularly open to visitors, but all can now be savoured and enjoyed along with those who know them best.

Secret Gardens of Somerset offers a personal tour of 20 of the UK’s most beguiling gardens in this much-loved area of southern England, defined by its distinctive horticulture, rolling hills, picturesque villages and the most traditional English landscape. Abigail Willis and Clive Boursnell give you privileged access to 20 gardens, from a highly productive working flower farm to very personal private retreats, revealing their history, design and plant collections, in the company of their devoted owners and head gardeners. In the footsteps of artists and trend-setters from Victorian designers such as Harold Peto to planting visionary, Gertrude Jekyll as well as contemporary pioneer Piet Oudolf, we find a series of beguiling country gardens of different sizes and atmospheres, which have shaped the English identity, and in different ways express the ideals of English life. The gardens: The American Museum and Gardens, Barley Wood Walled Garden, Batcombe House, The Bishop’s Palace, Common Farm, Cothay Manor, East Lambrook Manor, Elworthy Cottage, Forest Lodge, Greencombe Gardens, Hauser & Wirth Somerset, Hestercombe, Iford Manor, Kilver Court, Midney Gardens, Milton Lodge gardens, The Newt in Somerset, Stoberry House, Westbrook House, and Yeo Valley Organic Garden. Most of the gardens included here are privately owned and usually open to the public. Meanwhile, all of these landscapes can now be enjoyed through the eyes of the owners themselves. Tour even more magnificent English gardens with Secret Gardens of the Cotswolds and Secret Gardens of East Anglia.

COTSWOLD GARDENS tours one of Britain's best loved landscapes and explores, from a fresh perspective, some of its most spectacular gardens. It is not by chance that so many admirable gardens have sprung up in so concentrated an area. The rolling hills, steep escarpments and wooded coombs of the Cotswolds are blessed with a temperate climate and a tradition of prosperity that has allowed its inhabitants to build splendid manors and fine houses out of the local honey-coloured limestone. To complement such dwellings magnificent gardens were constructed, designed by famous figures such as Capability Brown, William Kent and Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe. COTSWOLD GARDENS looks at these gardens - Blenheim, Buscot, Hidcote, Rousham, Sezincote, Sudeley and many others - through the eyes of David Hicks, making this a garden book like no other. Accompanied by Andrew Lawson's stunning photographs, he discovers how the beauty of the surrounding countryside is inextricably linked to the symmetry and elegance of the gardens. His unique insights will delight and inspire gardeners everywhere.

Secret Houses of the Cotswolds is a personal tour of twenty of the UK’s most beguiling houses in this much loved area of western England, defined by its distinctive honey-coloured stone, rolling hills, picturesque villages and the most traditional English landscape. Author and architectural historian, Jeremy Musson, and Cotswolds-based photographer Hugo Rittson Thomas, offer privileged access to twenty houses, from castles and manor houses, by way of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century mansions, revealing their history, architecture and interiors, in the company of their devoted owners. In the footsteps of artists and designers from Georgian designers such as William Kent to Victorian visionary, William Morris, founder of the arts and crafts movement, we find a series of fascinating country houses of different sizes and atmospheres, which have shaped the English identity, and in different ways express the ideals of English life. Most of the houses included here are privately owned and not usually open to the public, and all of these houses featured in this book can be enjoyed through the eyes of owners, as well as an experienced architectural historian, and an award-winning photographer.

‘The Secret Gardeners is a WONDERFUL book. Just beautiful. It will live, page open, on my coffee table.’ Prue Leith (one of the Secret Gardeners) The Secret Gardeners is a captivating photographic portrait of the private gardening passions of 25 of the UKs foremost artists, designers, actors, producers, composers, playwrights, sculptors and musicians. It includes composers Andrew Lloyd Webber and Cameron Mackintosh; oligarch Evgeny Lebedev; entrepreneur Richard Branson; architect Anish Kapoor; actors Jeremy Irons, Rupert Everett, Griff Rhys Jones and Terry Gilliam; chef Prue Leith; musicians Ozzy Osbourne,Nick Mason and Sting; playwright Julian Fellowes; film director Paul Weiland; and designers Kirstie Allsopp and Cath Kidston. Accompanying meaty essays explaining the owners' inspiration and passion are stunningly-reproduced photographs revealing the beautiful gardens that the public rarely see. Amongst these gardeners you'll find the plantaholics, the scene-changers, the view makers, the weeders, the hot-colour fanatics and those who use their garden to retreat from public life.

The big skies and the extraordinary light of East Anglia make it unlike anywhere else in Britain, and offer the most amazing natural conditions in which to create gardens. The twenty-two gardens selected for Secret Gardens of East Anglia celebrate the culture, beauty and diversity of the counties of Suffolk, Norfolk, Cambridgeshire and Essex, and all deserve to be better known. Introduced by eminent East Anglian plantswoman and national treasure Beth Chatto, the gardens appearing on these pages are brought to life by the award-winning author and photographer team of Barbara Segall and Marcus Harpur. From each garden we can learn about the creator’s style, their talent for exploiting the genius loci, and the specific challenges and rewards they have encountered. Featured gardens include: -COLUMBINE HALL A moated garden with a series of green rooms -HELMINGHAM HALL GARDENS A gem of a garden hidden in its own moated island -KIRTLING TOWER A field of daffodils for a Tudor gatehouse -RAVENINGHAM HALL Exquisite planting in the RHS president’s private garden -THE MANOR HOUSE, FENSTANTON Garden rooms on Capability Brown’s private estate - ULTING WICK Thousands of tulips against a backdrop of black wooden barns -WINTERTON LIGHTHOUSE A lush yet restrained garden framing a lighthouse -WYKEN HALL Vines and roses around an Elizabethan manor house.

There is something special about the English country house garden: from its quiet verdant lawns to its high yew hedges, this is a style much-desired and copied around the world. The English country house is most often conceived as a private, intimate place, a getaway from working life. A pergola, a sundial, a croquet lawn, a herbaceous border of soft planting; here is a space to wander and relax, to share secrets, and above all to enjoy afternoon tea. But even the most peaceful of gardens also take passion and hard work to create. The English Country House Garden takes a fresh look at the English country house garden, starting with the owners and the stories behind the making of the gardens. Glorious photographs capture the gardens at their finest moments through the seasons, and a sparkling and erudite text presents twenty-five gardens - some grand, some personal, some celebrated, some never-before-photographed - to explore why this garden style has been so very enduring and influential. From the Victorian grandeur of Tyntesfield and Cragside, to the Arts & Crafts simplicity of Rodmarton Manor and Charleston; from Scampston, in the same family since the 17th century, to new gardens by Dan Pearson and Tom Stuart-Smith; and with favourites such as Hidcote and Great Dixter alongside new discoveries, this book will be a delicious treat for garden-lovers.