Through the garden gate

Through the garden gate lies a world of surprises. Each garden has its character and its season. This joyful little book conjures up the magic of many of them: rose gardens and children's gardens; the trees and lawns of stately homes and the well-manicured flowerbeds of municipal parks; kitchen gardens and the garden in winter; water gardens, wilderness gardens and the intoxicating scents of a garden at night. Together, Susan Hill's lyrical prose and Angela Barrett's lovely paintings combine to delight the senses and to encourage unusual ideas. They inspire you to believe that an orchard or an orange grove can be grown from pips, and at the same time point out that it's a waste of effort to cultivate vegetables that you don't personally enjoy eating. Anyone with a few plant pots and imagination can have his own garden, and this idiosyncratic book unleashes the fantasy in us all and gives us the confidence to be bold.