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The gardens of Oxford's thirty or so colleges are surprisingly varied in style, age and size, ranging from the ancient mound in the middle of New College to the fine modernist design which is St Catherine's. The eighteenth-century landscape school is represented in the magnificent acreage of Worcester, while the twentieth-century vogue for rock gardening is reflected at St John's. Founded in 1621, the university's Botanic Garden is the oldest botanic garden in Britain, holds one of the most diverse plant collections in the world, and has been a source of inspiration for writers from Lewis Carroll to Philip Pullman. From the bijou corners of Corpus Christi to the wide open lawns of Trinity, Oxford's gardens are full of surprises and hidden corners – not least the fellows' or masters' gardens, which are usually kept resolutely private, but can be enjoyed here.
In Oxford College Gardens Tim Richardson's elegant, authoritative analysis combines with Andrew Lawson's glorious photographs to reveal the full interest and charm of Oxford's college gardens.
Tim Richardson is a garden historian and critic of contemporary landscape architecture whose published work incluldes English Gardens in the Twentieth Century, Arcadian Friends: Inventing the English Landscape Garden and Great Gardens of America.He writes regularly for newspapers and magazines including the Daily Telegraph, Gardens Illustrated and Country Life. Tim was founding editor of New Eden, gardens editor of Country Life and landscape editor at Wallpaper magazine. He is a trustee of The Garden History Society and serves on the gardens advisory panel of the National Trust. Tim lives in London and is an Oxford alumnus.
Andrew Lawson is widely regarded as England's leading garden photographer. He has provided the photographs for many books, including Good Planting by Rosemary Verey, Penelope Hobhouse on Gardening, Designing Gardens by Arabella Lennox Boyd, Little Sparta by Jessie Sheeler, The Garden at Highgrove by HRH Prince of Wales, and The English Garden by Ursula Buchan and The New English Garden also by Tim Richardson. He holds the Royal Horticultural Society's Gold Medal for Photography and the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Garden Writer's Guild. His garden in Oxfordshire is open under the National Gardens Scheme.
"Mouthwateringly photographed by Andrew Lawson, the book admirably illustrates the poetry and range of the gardens [...] an important record of an imperilled gardening culture."
– Gardens Illustrated
"The definitive work on its subject."
– Country Life
