English queen of garden writing and world famous garden designer, Penelope Hobhouse, presents the history of gardening in an ambitious work charting garden history from the Ancient World through to the present day. From excavations at the pyramids it is clear the pharaohs cherished their gardens and despite water shortages spent small fortunes on building mini oasis' for their enjoyment. The Romans and Ancient Greeks created gardens, cultivating most importantly, medicinal plants, assiduously chronicled by Diosciorades. From the enclosed pleasure gardens of the Medieval Age, tulipomania, the discovery of the Americas and its botanical importance, the rolling landscapes of the 1800s, the great plant-hunters and explosion of botanical knowledge during Victoria's reign through to today's gardens with their fusion of modern and past, Hobhouse paints a vivid picture of the garden's development through the ages. With an incredible number of colour illustrations and photographs, this is both a visual and literal history of world gardening, cleverly pulled together by Penelope Hobhouse to present the definitive guide on the subject. - Lucy Watson