Saturday, June 01, 2013

Ideas take root at first gardening and books festival

The first-ever gardening and literature festival takes place this month.

Tom Stuart-Smith’s garden, Serge Hill
Reading nature: writers and gardeners will come together in Tom Stuart-Smith’s garden, Serge Hill  Photo: GAP
"The ablest writer is only a gardener first," wrote the Hare brothers, in 1827. Writers have long used gardens as a metaphor for their craft, and many great writers – think of Alexander Pope – have been gardeners too. Not to mention the countless works inspired by gardens.
So in some ways it's a surprise that it has taken this long for anyone to create a festival dedicated to literature and the garden. On June 29 and 30, Serge Hill, Tom Stuart-Smith's garden in Hertfordshire, will play host to A Friend, a Book and a Garden: A Festival of Garden Literature. Organised by the Garden Museum, the weekend will see some of the greatest contemporary garden writers come together to speak on a huge range of topics.
"I've been wondering for a few years how to create something with an escapist quality," says Christopher Woodward, director of the museum. "There's so much fantastic writing at the moment that talks about the process of creating a garden, drawing in history and memoir.
"In this country there's so much practical advice available already, I wanted to create something a bit more thoughtful and reflective. Gardening merges the intellectual with the practical in a wonderful way – it's somewhere between poetry and cooking. The festival will be quite intimate – just a couple of hundred people – so guests will be alongside speakers, having picnics on the lawns and that sort of thing. Serge Hill is one of the most remarkable contemporary gardens."

Regular Telegraph contributor Antony Woodward is a speaker, as is Sarah Raven, who will give a talk on the legacy of Vita Sackville-West. Other speakers include Cleve West, Anna Pavord, Penelope Hobhouse and Diana Athill, who will discuss gardening in old age.
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