Great Gardens of Britain

There's no better time of year for British gardens, and this sumptuous new book should tempt you to plan a few outings, writes Maggie Hartford.

Attlee has chosen to focus on just 20, and the nearest to Oxford is Hidcote, near Chipping Campden. Now owned by the National Trust, it appears much more old-fashioned than many in the glorious pictures taken by Attlee’s husband, photographer Alex Ramsay.

His technique emphasises shadows and sharp architectural plants, and is well suited to the garden sculpture so beloved of modern designers.

As Attlee says, Hidcote is different: “It seems to develop as a stream of consciousness, an ever expanding suite of rooms with no perceivable structure. It incorporates Italianate rooms,French parterres, a woodland garden, a stream garden and the skilfully ‘borrowed’ landscapes of the 18th-century garden.

“These influences are foreign and far-reaching, yet they are combined to create the archetypal English garden, a blueprint that continues to exert its influence today.”