Gardens Of Obsession

Gordon Taylor & Guy Cooper

Editions

Review

This book is a delicious confection of the bizarre and - well, surely, insane - fantasies that some people have grown, or constructed, in their gardens around the world. There are mazes and formal gardens, of course, but there are also rag-doll sculptures, organic chairs, elaborately grafted trees, a garden with 1600 varieties of rose, single chrysanthemums with falls of blossoms 2m wide; the garden grown and groomed to look like a Seurat painting, and the lawn artist, who sweeps the dew...

This book is more than just a freak show: it is fascinating to see just what these eccentric people have achieved. It would have been good if the pictures were bigger and better, but then the cost would have been much higher. As it is, this book is extremely good value and would surely give pleasure to anyone. - review by Johnny de Falbe