We are delighted to host the official launch of Tim Richardson's book, 'The English Landscape Garden: Dreaming of Arcadia.'
Smooth lawns, glassy pools, cool garden temples, mysterious woodland glades, evocative statuary… the 18th-century English landscape garden offers a transcendent vision of Arcadia, a world of rich escapism peopled by gods and goddesses, young lovers and dairymaids, poets and philosophers.
Join author Tim Richardson in conversation with author, journalist, and chief executive of the National Garden Scheme George Plumptre for the launch of The English Landscape Garden: Dreaming of Arcadia.
This sumptuous, beautifully photographed volume celebrates this quintessentially British creation, arguably its greatest artform, taking you on a tour of 20 of the finest surviving gardens, including:
- Studley Royal (Yorkshire), a dreamy valley garden which culminates with a view down and across the ruins of a Cistercian abbey
- Stowe (Buckinghamshire), the great politically motivated garden of its day, boasting the ensemble masterpiece that is William Kent’s Elysian Fields
- Chiswick House (London), Lord Burlington’s experiment in neoclassical architecture
- Petworth (Sussex) – of ‘Capability’ Brown, who eschewed the symbolism of earlier generations but created instead his own powerful vision of pastoral Arcadia
- Hawkstone Park (Shropshire), designed to elicit a thrill of fear in visitors as they traverse rocky precipices and encounter live hermits.
Speaker Bios
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Tim Richardson
Tim Richardson
Tim Richardson is a writer who specializes in garden and landscape design and history. He has been gardens editor at Country Life, and landscape editor at Wallpaper* magazine, and was founding editor of both the award-winning gardens magazine New Eden and Country Life Gardens. He contributes to the Daily Telegraph, House and Garden, Gardens Illustrated and Country Life. He is the author of more than 20 books on garden and landscape topics including Arcadian Friends: the Makers of the English Landscape Garden (Bantam), The New English Garden (Frances Lincoln), English Gardens of the 20th Century (Aurum) and Sissinghurst: The Dream Garden (Frances Lincoln). Tim is also the founder-director of the Chelsea Fringe Festival.
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George Plumptre
George Plumptre
The Honourable Wyndham George Plumptre is chief executive of the National Gardens Scheme. He is an expert on gardens and has been an author and journalist, including gardening correspondent for The Times.
