A choice of gardening books | 1 December 2016

Garden design usually breaks out of its confines to become part of the general consciousness only in Chelsea Flower Show week, but this year there have been so many events to mark the tercentenary of the birth of Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown — the most prolific and talented designer of the 18th-century landscape garden — that even the general public has noticed. Most events have occurred under the umbrella of the Capability Brown Partnership, the brainchild of a landscape historian called John Phibbs, who has spent several decades studying Brown’s 170-odd landscapes and advising some of the owners on their recovery, care and conservation.

Capability Brown: Designing the English Landscape (Rizzoli, £45) describes 15 Brown ‘landskips’ in chronological progression. Some, like Blenheim and Chatsworth, are extremely well known; others, such as Himley Hall and Moccas Court, were certainly new to me. This book contains superb photographs by Joe Cornish and can be warmly recommended with only one small caveat: the author assumes that the reader understands topography as he does.