This is a very accessible history of the vices and virtues of British gardeners through the ages, particularly those who shaped the National Trust gardens.

For a lighthearted look at the history of gardens through the characters who owned and created them, this book offers stories of greed, gluttony, pride, lust, wrath, sloth and envy, alongside the glaring opposite - tales of great kindness, love and generosity.

From the garden owner who blew more money on ferns in one shopping trip than she paid her Head Gardener in a year, to Winston Churchill, wading knee-deep in the mud of his beloved garden at Chartwell, and from the intrepid plant hunters of the 19th century to the landowner who replaced an entire village with a more attractive bluebell wood, these stories of gardens, their owners and their gardeners are filled with history and intrigue.