What do you think?
Rate this book
The Garden Against Time: In Search of a Common Paradise
In 2020, Olivia Laing began to restore a walled garden in Suffolk, an overgrown Eden of unusual plants. The work drew her into an exhilarating investigation of paradise and its long association with gardens. Moving between real and imagined gardens, from Milton’s Paradise Lost to John Clare’s enclosure elegies, from a wartime sanctuary in Italy to a grotesque aristocratic pleasure ground funded by slavery, Laing interrogates the sometimes shocking cost of making paradise on earth.
But the story of the garden doesn’t always enact larger patterns of privilege and exclusion. It’s also a place of rebel outposts and communal dreams. From the improbable queer utopia conjured by Derek Jarman on the beach at Dungeness to the fertile vision of a common Eden propagated by William Morris, new modes of living can and have been attempted amidst the flower beds, experiments that could prove vital in the coming era of climate change.
The result is a humming, glowing tapestry, a beautiful and exacting account of the abundant pleasures and possibilities of not as a place to hide from the world but as a site of encounter and discovery, bee-loud and pollen-laden.
But the story of the garden doesn’t always enact larger patterns of privilege and exclusion. It’s also a place of rebel outposts and communal dreams. From the improbable queer utopia conjured by Derek Jarman on the beach at Dungeness to the fertile vision of a common Eden propagated by William Morris, new modes of living can and have been attempted amidst the flower beds, experiments that could prove vital in the coming era of climate change.
The result is a humming, glowing tapestry, a beautiful and exacting account of the abundant pleasures and possibilities of not as a place to hide from the world but as a site of encounter and discovery, bee-loud and pollen-laden.
336 pages, Hardcover
First published May 2, 2024
744 people are currently reading
15.9k people want to read
About the author
Olivia Laing
32books2,676followersOlivia Laing is a writer and critic. She’s the author of To the River, The Trip to Echo Spring and The Lonely City, which has been translated into 17 languages and sold over 100,000 copies worldwide. Her collected essays, Funny Weather: Art in an Emergency, were published in 2020.
Her first novel, Crudo, is a real-time account of the turbulent summer of 2017. It was a Sunday Times top ten bestseller and a New York Times notable book of 2018 and was shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize and the Gordon Burn Prize. In 2019 it won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize.
Laing’s writing about art & culture appears in the Guardian, Observer, Financial Times and frieze, among many other publications. She’s a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and in 2018 was awarded the Windham-Campbell Prize for non-fiction.
Her new book, Everybody: A Book About Freedom is a dazzling investigation into the body and its discontents, using the life of the renegade psychoanalyst Wilhelm Reich to chart a daring course through the long struggle for bodily freedom.
Her first novel, Crudo, is a real-time account of the turbulent summer of 2017. It was a Sunday Times top ten bestseller and a New York Times notable book of 2018 and was shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize and the Gordon Burn Prize. In 2019 it won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize.
Laing’s writing about art & culture appears in the Guardian, Observer, Financial Times and frieze, among many other publications. She’s a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and in 2018 was awarded the Windham-Campbell Prize for non-fiction.
Her new book, Everybody: A Book About Freedom is a dazzling investigation into the body and its discontents, using the life of the renegade psychoanalyst Wilhelm Reich to chart a daring course through the long struggle for bodily freedom.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 353 reviews
Read
March 16, 2024Frankly hard to disentangle my love for Olivia Laing's work from my latent desire to be Olivia Laing
May 19, 2024
The way Laing writes is the way I like to read: to sink into a world that explores a theme by collecting things that seem to have little to do with each other but are held together by the thread that is Laings ability to see the connection and write it all into a beautiful, vulnerable tapestry. In this one she once again weaves together elements of literature, art, politics, history, philosophy and the personal in a way that make every turn of the page a surprise. I never knew where she was going, but I was more that happy to led myself be led through the gardens - whether they were fictional or real, long gone or still blooming, private or there for everyone to enjoy.
I have a thing for gardens, so maybe I am biased. Whenever I encounter a closed off garden I am overcome by an urge to be in there, as if every garden holds a secret I need to dig up. And after reading The Garden Against Time, I realize that maybe, they do. The secrets aren’t always wonderful revelations about life and nature and beauty, sometimes they are terrible and come at a high cost. But secrets they are, and Laing makes a beautiful case to go diggging for them - or at the very least stop and stand still whenever you encounter a carefully planted garden, wondering what stories might be hidden in the soil.
I have a thing for gardens, so maybe I am biased. Whenever I encounter a closed off garden I am overcome by an urge to be in there, as if every garden holds a secret I need to dig up. And after reading The Garden Against Time, I realize that maybe, they do. The secrets aren’t always wonderful revelations about life and nature and beauty, sometimes they are terrible and come at a high cost. But secrets they are, and Laing makes a beautiful case to go diggging for them - or at the very least stop and stand still whenever you encounter a carefully planted garden, wondering what stories might be hidden in the soil.
July 23, 2024
Je vindt me vaker in mijn tuin dan vroeger. Eind mei, toen ik begon te merken dat ik naar aanleiding van mijn boek ‘Een ander leven� te vaak over mezelf praatte, nam de drang naar mijn binnenwereld (lees: de stilte) en mijn buitenwereld (lees: ons huis plus tuin) toe. Ik keek uit naar een eiland. Sinds een paar weken hang ik aan een parachute. Ik geloof dat ik binnenkort land. Mijn autoreply functioneert als een tuinmuur. Ondertussen ben ik een spons. Dat klinkt contradictorisch, maar dat is het niet. Je kunt heel goed niet bereikbaar zijn, en ondertussen zelf kiezen wie binnenkomt. Van Olivia Laing heb ik bijna elk boek dat ze heeft geschreven binnengelaten. Haar meest recente boek, ‘The Garden Against Time�, is precies op het goeie moment in mijn handen terechtgekomen. Een bedwelmend goed vertelde geschiedenis. Je begint bij haar huis met tuin � net voor de pandemie � en ze stuurt je op een magistrale manier naar de geschiedenis van � kortweg � tuinen.
January 29, 2025
Right book + right day = positive reading experience.
The book was not quite what I expected, although it is exactly what the summary describes. Olivia Laing describes her experiences recreating an overgrown garden that was once, decades before, a showplace.
But that undertaking is only part of her musings. She describes her relationships with gardens throughout her life, as well as her relationships with her parents. But her real subject is the relationship of humankind to gardens.
In pursuit of insights on this topic she delves into the writings of John Milton and William Morris and a dozen other authors. How did gardens figure in their world views? What are the costs of creating a garden, and do the benefits outweigh those costs?
I found most of this extremely interesting, especially when I was familiar with the authors. I found it more difficult to absorb her message when she was writing about authors or other artists I didn’t know. Her explorations of the gardens of the privileged vs. concepts of shared land were thoughtful, well presented and engrossing.
I imagine that avid gardeners will appreciate her day to day descriptions of the steps she took to remake her garden, whether she’s describing turning over the soil or listing the many, many plants she wants to include. It’s a funny thing - I always assumed I would follow my mother and sister in pursuing gardening as a hobby more than I actually have done. It seemed that either the place I was living was not suitable for establishing a garden, or I got sidetracked with some other hobby that consumed all my time. Still, I knew all the plants (if not the cultivars) she discusses, so these sections also held my interest.
The book climaxes when a drought threatens to destroy Laing’s newly finished garden. Her efforts to come to terms with this situation (and the fact that this was probably just the first in a series of droughts to come) led to a re-evaluation of that relationship between humankind and gardens. It’s an excellent chapter, and I think if she had stopped there the ending would have been stronger. The last few pages took the edge off and added nothing.
The book was not quite what I expected, although it is exactly what the summary describes. Olivia Laing describes her experiences recreating an overgrown garden that was once, decades before, a showplace.
But that undertaking is only part of her musings. She describes her relationships with gardens throughout her life, as well as her relationships with her parents. But her real subject is the relationship of humankind to gardens.
In pursuit of insights on this topic she delves into the writings of John Milton and William Morris and a dozen other authors. How did gardens figure in their world views? What are the costs of creating a garden, and do the benefits outweigh those costs?
I found most of this extremely interesting, especially when I was familiar with the authors. I found it more difficult to absorb her message when she was writing about authors or other artists I didn’t know. Her explorations of the gardens of the privileged vs. concepts of shared land were thoughtful, well presented and engrossing.
I imagine that avid gardeners will appreciate her day to day descriptions of the steps she took to remake her garden, whether she’s describing turning over the soil or listing the many, many plants she wants to include. It’s a funny thing - I always assumed I would follow my mother and sister in pursuing gardening as a hobby more than I actually have done. It seemed that either the place I was living was not suitable for establishing a garden, or I got sidetracked with some other hobby that consumed all my time. Still, I knew all the plants (if not the cultivars) she discusses, so these sections also held my interest.
The book climaxes when a drought threatens to destroy Laing’s newly finished garden. Her efforts to come to terms with this situation (and the fact that this was probably just the first in a series of droughts to come) led to a re-evaluation of that relationship between humankind and gardens. It’s an excellent chapter, and I think if she had stopped there the ending would have been stronger. The last few pages took the edge off and added nothing.
June 13, 2024
Many Edens
Olivia Laing's seventh book begins as a portrait of a time halted: the lockdown, a house in Suffolk, and the dream-effused labour of restoring the walled garden attached to it. As the author tells us, she came to homeownership late, "renting till [she] was 40," and to her lifelong passion for cultivating a garden of her own under circumstances of personal duress: forced to move when her mother was outed as gay, she found solace in childhood trips to National Trust homes with her father. It was her proximity to injustice that led Laing to gardens, and this unlikely book attempts to trace the grotesque that underlies this idea of paradise.
Take, for instance, Eden, and the attendant idea of a sublime, failsafe sanctuary that all earthly gardens are based around: reading Milton amidst a pandemic, an ongoing housing crisis, and the onwards march of the Far Right, Laing recognises gardens as sites inescapably political, on which the grotesque reality of existing power structures is writ large alongside the urge to forget about them. As she works her hands into the dirt and brings her own garden to bloom, she also attempts to trace - if not uncover - the history of slavery, colonialism, empire and enclosure on which the notable gardens of England have quite literally been built - those sublime estates that symbolise the status quo in a country where over 50% of land is owned by less than 1% of the population.
For Laing, as for those like W.G, Sebald and the utopian socialist William Morris, gardens - not least in their idea of slow, seasonal growth outside the capitalist logic of productivity - can also be a site for imagining utopias and cultivating radical futures. As with her previous books, The Garden Against Time is embedded with heartfelt forays into the lives of artists and thinkers whose life and work advance Laing's central argument: the "peasant poet" John Clare, with his flowers and his ailing letters to his son, is emblematic of the devastating psychological impact of being dispossessed of one's ancestral land, as many were during the Enclosures movement of the 18th century; Derek Jarman's garden in Dungeness prompts us to think anew of plague, repose, and regeneration. Laing also sees the possibility of gardens as "rebel states," taking us back to La Foce in Italy, which served as a shelter for refugees during the Second World War.
Though imbued with a sense of injustice, Laing's attempts to grasp the remedial and revolutionary potential of Eden is presented to us in lush, verdant, sensual prose - not neatly pruned, but "floriferous and floppy," with blooms, colours, sounds, and smells clashing and pushing up against each other unlike in the fixed, seamless landscapes designed by the likes of Capability Brown. In an interview with The Independent, Laing describes this as a way to offer the reader respite during this journey into Edenic thinking. This, in my opinion, is only as successful as the degree to which the book works to welcome readers into recognising the uncomfortable facts behind our ideas of idyll and visualising gardens as spaces for resistance, friendship, and care: The Garden Against Time falters in its survey of the present; the connection between the author's emotions and the happenings in the world around her often feel forced, glib, and only tangentially engaged.
This is certainly not Laing's best work, but nonetheless important. It does the critical work up until a point - after which it is up to us, as readers, to carry on the work of reimaging...
Olivia Laing's seventh book begins as a portrait of a time halted: the lockdown, a house in Suffolk, and the dream-effused labour of restoring the walled garden attached to it. As the author tells us, she came to homeownership late, "renting till [she] was 40," and to her lifelong passion for cultivating a garden of her own under circumstances of personal duress: forced to move when her mother was outed as gay, she found solace in childhood trips to National Trust homes with her father. It was her proximity to injustice that led Laing to gardens, and this unlikely book attempts to trace the grotesque that underlies this idea of paradise.
Take, for instance, Eden, and the attendant idea of a sublime, failsafe sanctuary that all earthly gardens are based around: reading Milton amidst a pandemic, an ongoing housing crisis, and the onwards march of the Far Right, Laing recognises gardens as sites inescapably political, on which the grotesque reality of existing power structures is writ large alongside the urge to forget about them. As she works her hands into the dirt and brings her own garden to bloom, she also attempts to trace - if not uncover - the history of slavery, colonialism, empire and enclosure on which the notable gardens of England have quite literally been built - those sublime estates that symbolise the status quo in a country where over 50% of land is owned by less than 1% of the population.
For Laing, as for those like W.G, Sebald and the utopian socialist William Morris, gardens - not least in their idea of slow, seasonal growth outside the capitalist logic of productivity - can also be a site for imagining utopias and cultivating radical futures. As with her previous books, The Garden Against Time is embedded with heartfelt forays into the lives of artists and thinkers whose life and work advance Laing's central argument: the "peasant poet" John Clare, with his flowers and his ailing letters to his son, is emblematic of the devastating psychological impact of being dispossessed of one's ancestral land, as many were during the Enclosures movement of the 18th century; Derek Jarman's garden in Dungeness prompts us to think anew of plague, repose, and regeneration. Laing also sees the possibility of gardens as "rebel states," taking us back to La Foce in Italy, which served as a shelter for refugees during the Second World War.
Though imbued with a sense of injustice, Laing's attempts to grasp the remedial and revolutionary potential of Eden is presented to us in lush, verdant, sensual prose - not neatly pruned, but "floriferous and floppy," with blooms, colours, sounds, and smells clashing and pushing up against each other unlike in the fixed, seamless landscapes designed by the likes of Capability Brown. In an interview with The Independent, Laing describes this as a way to offer the reader respite during this journey into Edenic thinking. This, in my opinion, is only as successful as the degree to which the book works to welcome readers into recognising the uncomfortable facts behind our ideas of idyll and visualising gardens as spaces for resistance, friendship, and care: The Garden Against Time falters in its survey of the present; the connection between the author's emotions and the happenings in the world around her often feel forced, glib, and only tangentially engaged.
This is certainly not Laing's best work, but nonetheless important. It does the critical work up until a point - after which it is up to us, as readers, to carry on the work of reimaging...
April 16, 2024
Oh how it pains me to say (write) this review (I mean, my first ever job was working as a gardener, plus I’m now a freelance florist, so believe me, the pain cuts DEEP) but, much like the hopeful planting of seeds, not all of them, are bound to bloom quite how we imagine (does that metaphor work -who knows!)
“The Garden Against Time: In Search of a Common Paradise� to give it its full credit, is a scattered account that spans time, places and spaces. From a walled garden in Suffolk, to Adam and Eves “Eden�, Laing attempts to unearth (oop, here we go again with the metaphors) what it means to have (grow, own, and/or work) in a garden of one’s own!
Sounds delightfully promising right?
Well, you’re not wholly wrong. As there are definitely a ‘scattering of seeds� that do ‘blossom� (though they do also rapidly decline, due to the downpour of historical citations -more on that in a mo) Most notably when Laing writes on a more personal level. Whether that’s from her early childhood, in and amongst the gardens she knew and grew up with, or her more recent undertaking -reclaiming her new (but old) 18th century overgrown “Eden�.
However, much like the treacherous effects of the weather on a garden, the down-pouring of mind numbingly dull, historical (fictional or nonfictional) references (most of which were pretty obvious drawn associations, and didn’t really add anything new to the subject of; gardens, nature and/or Eden) overflowed to the point of pure disappointment. I also found her tangents on; land ownership, exclusion (whether class, race or gender related) and climate change (ironic considering my metaphorical rain analogy) also somewhat trite and dare I say, performative �
Overall (and like many newbie gardeners -and even those in the biz for years too I guess) this was a humble idea on paper (or in the mind really), that sadly didn’t prosper in the wild (print?)
2.5 stars
PS ~ many thanks to the publishers for an advanced copy!
PPS ~ apologies to my fellow GR pals, for this diabolically poor review (the metaphors man, they always get me)
“The Garden Against Time: In Search of a Common Paradise� to give it its full credit, is a scattered account that spans time, places and spaces. From a walled garden in Suffolk, to Adam and Eves “Eden�, Laing attempts to unearth (oop, here we go again with the metaphors) what it means to have (grow, own, and/or work) in a garden of one’s own!
Sounds delightfully promising right?
Well, you’re not wholly wrong. As there are definitely a ‘scattering of seeds� that do ‘blossom� (though they do also rapidly decline, due to the downpour of historical citations -more on that in a mo) Most notably when Laing writes on a more personal level. Whether that’s from her early childhood, in and amongst the gardens she knew and grew up with, or her more recent undertaking -reclaiming her new (but old) 18th century overgrown “Eden�.
However, much like the treacherous effects of the weather on a garden, the down-pouring of mind numbingly dull, historical (fictional or nonfictional) references (most of which were pretty obvious drawn associations, and didn’t really add anything new to the subject of; gardens, nature and/or Eden) overflowed to the point of pure disappointment. I also found her tangents on; land ownership, exclusion (whether class, race or gender related) and climate change (ironic considering my metaphorical rain analogy) also somewhat trite and dare I say, performative �
Overall (and like many newbie gardeners -and even those in the biz for years too I guess) this was a humble idea on paper (or in the mind really), that sadly didn’t prosper in the wild (print?)
2.5 stars
PS ~ many thanks to the publishers for an advanced copy!
PPS ~ apologies to my fellow GR pals, for this diabolically poor review (the metaphors man, they always get me)
May 24, 2024
I was very excited for this new release, but found it to be a huge disappointment.
Laing sucks all the enchantment and life out of nature writing. Drab historical sections which seem to have no meaning, or drag on to prove the most simple points (the spoils of slavery used to create huge country manors�.so?).
Repeated mentions of how revolutionary acts of historical naturalists and poets were despite them feeling so flat and hollow. Endless points of benign past revolution, but what of any revolution today?
A pretentious tone throughout. It feels condescending when Laing draws out seemingly obvious points page after page. Little new seems to be added.
A huge focus on the old upper classes and elites. The whole thing feels fractured.
I wanted more solid links to the present (allotments, WW2 call to gardening, urban farms, permaculture�).
The biggest crime of the Garden Against Time is that it’s boring. The best nature writing for me breaks down nonhuman barriers, inspires connection, creativity, brings mystery and enchantment back to the natural world. This fell so flat.
Laing sucks all the enchantment and life out of nature writing. Drab historical sections which seem to have no meaning, or drag on to prove the most simple points (the spoils of slavery used to create huge country manors�.so?).
Repeated mentions of how revolutionary acts of historical naturalists and poets were despite them feeling so flat and hollow. Endless points of benign past revolution, but what of any revolution today?
A pretentious tone throughout. It feels condescending when Laing draws out seemingly obvious points page after page. Little new seems to be added.
A huge focus on the old upper classes and elites. The whole thing feels fractured.
I wanted more solid links to the present (allotments, WW2 call to gardening, urban farms, permaculture�).
The biggest crime of the Garden Against Time is that it’s boring. The best nature writing for me breaks down nonhuman barriers, inspires connection, creativity, brings mystery and enchantment back to the natural world. This fell so flat.
Read
December 8, 2023A cumulative intellectual with a golden pen, Laing's ability to relate to human desire across eras, reveals- in gorgeous and personal prose- the links to beauty that unite and also exclude, building ideologies of loveliness and separation, resistance and supremacy in quietude. She connects collectivity with dirt, hand-building both private and generous new worlds as safe refuge and risky experiments.
Want to read
September 6, 2024About how industrialization caused a greater rift between the poor and the wealthy. The poor were left with cheap, ugly mass-produced, low-quality items while the rich were still able to obtain hand crafted durable, beautiful items (or so someone on BookTube says).
May 6, 2024
Olivia Laing takes us on the journey through the life of the garden she takes ownership of during lockdown. Through the history of the garden's past and her own history, she attempts to plot a future with the garden at its heart. As she explores what the garden means to her, she draws on other gardens and gardeners to act as way markers and as lessons in both what to do and what not to do. She looks at the dark history under some of the most elegant gardens and at the way gardens, both real and imagined have shaped our responses to nature and to life itself. This is elegant, beautiful and clever. It's romantic and thoughtful and smart. I loved it.
August 24, 2024
Здається це сьома прочитана книга цієї авторки, тож я вже знаю лекала виготовлення. Типу йшла-йшла, пиріжок знайшла, а тепер поговоримо про вирощування пшениці, які корови паслися на березі Темзи в XVII сторіччі, трохи квіру і сучасної повістки. Таке розгорнуте есе вперемішку з автофікшном, загалом відчуття читання неспішної родинної хроніки з вкрапленням Вікіпедії.
Отже, головна тема - сад. Власне про пошуки втраченого персонального раю і йдеться. З безжальною бухгалтерською ретельністю будуть перераховані назви і сорти майже усіх квітів, кущів і дерев з новонабутої оази щастя Олівії, де вона оселилася з чоловіком під час covid десь біля зебальдівських прогулянкових шляхів. Це трошки сильно втомлююче для людей не задіяних в садівництві. З іншого боку - навіщо б вони цю книгу читали?
Цікаво яким буде українське видання, чи залишиться оригінальна обкладинка.
На додачу стаття про сад з картинками
Отже, головна тема - сад. Власне про пошуки втраченого персонального раю і йдеться. З безжальною бухгалтерською ретельністю будуть перераховані назви і сорти майже усіх квітів, кущів і дерев з новонабутої оази щастя Олівії, де вона оселилася з чоловіком під час covid десь біля зебальдівських прогулянкових шляхів. Це трошки сильно втомлююче для людей не задіяних в садівництві. З іншого боку - навіщо б вони цю книгу читали?
Цікаво яким буде українське видання, чи залишиться оригінальна обкладинка.
На додачу стаття про сад з картинками
April 5, 2024
One would believe that a book entitled The Garden Against Time by Olivia Laing would describe the author's restoration of her 18th C. walled garden in Suffolk, England. The parts of the book that detailed her restoration efforts were a delight to read, particularly if one is a gardener or even hopes to be one. However, there are many aspects of this book that reek of the condescension of the British elite.
For example, there are multiple discussions about her views on President Donald Trump and the 2020 election. Quite frankly, I don't care if Laing loves or hates Trump, her views on the matter--given that she's not an American citizen and doesn't vote in US elections--had no place in this book about a garden restoration in Suffolk, England. Her periodic handwringing about Trump reminded me of the Hollywood types who get up at the Oscars and share their political world view, even though it has nothing to do with movie awards.
There were also long sections of the book where Laing expresses all sorts of outraged that many of the spectacular gardens in England were funded by colonialism and slavery. Hello, Rule Britannia--the history is what the history is; should the gardens be dismantled like so many statues that have been removed from public places because the moderns don't like their history? We're supposed to learn from our past--the good, the bad, and the ugly, lest we be doomed to repeat it.
I also found it ironic that with all the discussion of the source of the funding of those historical gardens, like a good elite, she doesn't mention what it cost to restore her 18th C. garden. Thankfully, she could overlook that issue because, after the restoration, she did open her garden to the public and served tea to the visitors. Then, all that work, the carefully selected plants, shriveled up and died due to a particularly hot and dry summer in England. And, of course, that led to the climate change rant and a complete redo of many of the plantings to add more heat tolerant plants. One would have thought if someone was so aware of climate change, she would have considered that fact in the original planting scheme, just sayin.
I really love to garden. I really wanted to like this book. And I probably would have if it actually had been more about the garden, and less about the author's politics and BBC world view.
Many thanks to W.W. Norton for an advanced copy of The Garden Again Time. All opinions expressed are my own.
For example, there are multiple discussions about her views on President Donald Trump and the 2020 election. Quite frankly, I don't care if Laing loves or hates Trump, her views on the matter--given that she's not an American citizen and doesn't vote in US elections--had no place in this book about a garden restoration in Suffolk, England. Her periodic handwringing about Trump reminded me of the Hollywood types who get up at the Oscars and share their political world view, even though it has nothing to do with movie awards.
There were also long sections of the book where Laing expresses all sorts of outraged that many of the spectacular gardens in England were funded by colonialism and slavery. Hello, Rule Britannia--the history is what the history is; should the gardens be dismantled like so many statues that have been removed from public places because the moderns don't like their history? We're supposed to learn from our past--the good, the bad, and the ugly, lest we be doomed to repeat it.
I also found it ironic that with all the discussion of the source of the funding of those historical gardens, like a good elite, she doesn't mention what it cost to restore her 18th C. garden. Thankfully, she could overlook that issue because, after the restoration, she did open her garden to the public and served tea to the visitors. Then, all that work, the carefully selected plants, shriveled up and died due to a particularly hot and dry summer in England. And, of course, that led to the climate change rant and a complete redo of many of the plantings to add more heat tolerant plants. One would have thought if someone was so aware of climate change, she would have considered that fact in the original planting scheme, just sayin.
I really love to garden. I really wanted to like this book. And I probably would have if it actually had been more about the garden, and less about the author's politics and BBC world view.
Many thanks to W.W. Norton for an advanced copy of The Garden Again Time. All opinions expressed are my own.
Read
January 5, 2025Solo per lettori appassionati di giardini e di belle edizioni e di storia.
Niente di più di una lettura piacevole, ma ho trovato la Laing un po' sottotono.
Niente di più di una lettura piacevole, ma ho trovato la Laing un po' sottotono.
December 10, 2024
En 2020, Olivia Laing empezó a restaurar un jardín amurallado en Suffolk, un edén cubierto de plantas insólitas. Todo el trabajo que hacía, la arrastro a una investigación sobre el paraíso y como se asociaba a los jardines.
Este libro es una mezcla de la historia del jardín personal de la autora con historia de los jardines del “Paraiso�. Escrito a modo de diario, donde muestra muchas veces sus opiniones. Es una historia sobre la vida en torno a todos los jardines, como nos inspiran.
La autora es fanática de estos y nos cuenta como se fijaba desde pequeña en ellos, como si fuera su modo de vida, el lado opuesto de la guerra, nos habla de diferentes tipos de jardines y como por ejemplo en Inglaterra son todo un hito. Una anécdota es que durante la pandemia hubo un gran auge de estos, la gente plantaba flores y se hacia sus pequeños huertos, y lo extrapola a que un jardín es imprescindible para mantener la cordura, ya que con ello mantienes ocupada la mente.
Lo etiquetaría como un ensayo en el cual nos muestra sus diarios, como es su día a día, un libro denso y bastante exhaustivo sobre los jardines y lo que implica tener uno.
En conclusión si te gusta el tema, estoy segura de que te va a encantar, sino quizá se te haga un poco cuesta arriba.
Este libro es una mezcla de la historia del jardín personal de la autora con historia de los jardines del “Paraiso�. Escrito a modo de diario, donde muestra muchas veces sus opiniones. Es una historia sobre la vida en torno a todos los jardines, como nos inspiran.
La autora es fanática de estos y nos cuenta como se fijaba desde pequeña en ellos, como si fuera su modo de vida, el lado opuesto de la guerra, nos habla de diferentes tipos de jardines y como por ejemplo en Inglaterra son todo un hito. Una anécdota es que durante la pandemia hubo un gran auge de estos, la gente plantaba flores y se hacia sus pequeños huertos, y lo extrapola a que un jardín es imprescindible para mantener la cordura, ya que con ello mantienes ocupada la mente.
Lo etiquetaría como un ensayo en el cual nos muestra sus diarios, como es su día a día, un libro denso y bastante exhaustivo sobre los jardines y lo que implica tener uno.
En conclusión si te gusta el tema, estoy segura de que te va a encantar, sino quizá se te haga un poco cuesta arriba.
March 23, 2025
"There's no point looking for Eden on a map. It's a dream carried in the heart "
Olivia Laing has written a beautiful and highly contemplative read. This is the story of a garden- an attempt to recapture the beauty of a garden that has been lost and abandoned. But this is also a cautionary tale about the humans desire for paradise and how this has been lost, manipulated, confused and often seems to be out of touch.
This is a call to arms- the right for all to have a space to call a garden- to engage with nature, plants, green - just breathe in a moment of personal joy - instead of the world's continual desire to determine success in monetary growth terms or through personal acquisition of objects- commercialism.
Olivia takes us on journey - the long and arduous road of creating her garden, the highs, the challenges and the lessons. But she also takes us on journey through time and literature exploring through poets and writers and history the importance of the garden and how the wealthy and those in in power have done all they can to usurp the masses of their land and gardens too.
The description of plants and the evolution of the garden is mesmerising and soothing .There are also explorations of some famous gardens- the poignancy on the section about Derek Jarman is incredibly moving.
A truly wonderful book- several pages were "post-it noted" (is that a verb?) as paragraphs need to be reconsidered to make me reflect upon my views of what I perceive as a garden.
Highly recommended- an intelligent, hauntingly gorgeous and ultimately life affirming read that shows us that nature is a life blood for all not the few
Olivia Laing has written a beautiful and highly contemplative read. This is the story of a garden- an attempt to recapture the beauty of a garden that has been lost and abandoned. But this is also a cautionary tale about the humans desire for paradise and how this has been lost, manipulated, confused and often seems to be out of touch.
This is a call to arms- the right for all to have a space to call a garden- to engage with nature, plants, green - just breathe in a moment of personal joy - instead of the world's continual desire to determine success in monetary growth terms or through personal acquisition of objects- commercialism.
Olivia takes us on journey - the long and arduous road of creating her garden, the highs, the challenges and the lessons. But she also takes us on journey through time and literature exploring through poets and writers and history the importance of the garden and how the wealthy and those in in power have done all they can to usurp the masses of their land and gardens too.
The description of plants and the evolution of the garden is mesmerising and soothing .There are also explorations of some famous gardens- the poignancy on the section about Derek Jarman is incredibly moving.
A truly wonderful book- several pages were "post-it noted" (is that a verb?) as paragraphs need to be reconsidered to make me reflect upon my views of what I perceive as a garden.
Highly recommended- an intelligent, hauntingly gorgeous and ultimately life affirming read that shows us that nature is a life blood for all not the few
December 13, 2024
Oeeeh, ik houd zo van Olivia Laing (toch wel favoriet na Maggie Nelson?)! Hoe haar schrijven kabbelt als een beekje langs allerlei verschillende landschappen: ze schrijft over tuinen, en legt verbanden tussen tuinen en kolonialisme, tuinen en queerness, tuinen en socialisme, tuinen en wederopbouw, tuinen en de klimaatcrisis. Veel historische context, persoonlijke verhalen, nog meer bloemsoorten, maar alles zo prachtig met elkaar verweven dat het wel één geheel blijft.
(wil nu ook een cottage met een tuin; foxglove, wisteria)
(wil nu ook een cottage met een tuin; foxglove, wisteria)
February 4, 2025
Qué maravilla de libro. Aún siendo muy poco o nada aficionado a la jardinería y desconociendo todas las plantas y flores que cita, te sumerges en su lectura y te da la sensación de estar viviendo dentro de uno de esos paisajes.
December 8, 2024
Si bien actualmente se están editando muchos libros sobre jardines y jardinería, el libro que nos trae Olivia Laing no es propiamente un libro sobre jardines. Es un libro sobre la vida en torno a ellos, sobre la vida que hacemos en ellos, sobre cómo nos inspiran o cómo nos evocan ese pequeño cielo en la tierra. Si bien ya hablé de jardines en 2019, no voy a seguir la estela que hicieron los monjes, sino la que hace e hizo Olivia Laing.
La autora recuerda que desde su infancia ya los tenía en mente, que siempre se fijaba en ellos, que el jardín siempre fue algo más que una simple evocación. Es asimismo tener un jardín un modo de vida, de estar ante el mundo. Dice Laing que los jardines son el lado opuesto de la guerra, y yo no puedo sino afirmarlo, incluso aunque el jardín esté en desuso o abandonado. Los jardines que nos muestra Laing nos habla de su vida, de sus paisajes, de sus vivencias en diferentes ciudades y va trazando un mapa alrededor de las cosas que decía John Milton o Derek Jarman, quienes también tenían un gran afán por ellos.
Los jardines de los que se hablan aquí nos muestran que todo cambia, que el mundo tiene sus ciclos, sus obras por hacer y su curiosa forma de ser. Los jardines constituyen todo un hito en Inglaterra. Los hay a cada lado, por todos lados, cuidados o no cuidados. Laing se fija en ellos y hace un esbozo desde su más tierna infancia hasta la actualidad, pasando por la pandemia en la que decidió por sí misma que construiría un jardín en su casa, aunque más que construirlo, lo remodelaría. En la pandemia, según nos cuenta, hubo un boom en Inglaterra de gente que se dedicaría a plantar flores y plantas y pequeños huertos. Esto nos dice que tener un jardín es un signo vital para mantener nuestra cordura; quien lo cuida y lo mantiene, ocupada y con la mente ordenada estará.
Pero Laing va más allá, ella nos habla de ese edén que se ha construido para sí misma. A modo de ensayo, nos pone esbozos de sus diarios mientras reconstruía el jardín. No hay nada más que ver su instagram () para empaparnos de verde y flores que ella misma ha cuidado. Nos cuenta su día a día, como sale a primera hora de la mañana para plantar bulbos o regar plantas. Sin duda Laing nos trae un libro excesivo sobre lo que implica tener un jardín, y es que es un libro denso y bastante exhaustivo sobre ellos. No técnicamente, pero sí arduamente. La autora escribe con tanto tesón que se nos vuelve un libro para leer a ratos, poco a poco, para que las palabras nos llenen con su rocío.
El jardín contra el tiempo es un libro sobre libros, sobre lo que es la jardinería y lo que es tener que llevar un jardín y todo el tiempo que nos consume. Cuando Laing se lanzó a este proyecto no sabía lo que sucedería, pero el proyecto dio sus frutos, lo argumentó, lo solventó y ahora tenemos unas vistas preciosas llenas de flores, tulipanes, rosas y todo tipo de plantas para hacernos ver que la naturaleza también puede ser una extensión de nuestra vida y nuestra alma. Naturalezas vivas que se convierten en más vida.
La autora recuerda que desde su infancia ya los tenía en mente, que siempre se fijaba en ellos, que el jardín siempre fue algo más que una simple evocación. Es asimismo tener un jardín un modo de vida, de estar ante el mundo. Dice Laing que los jardines son el lado opuesto de la guerra, y yo no puedo sino afirmarlo, incluso aunque el jardín esté en desuso o abandonado. Los jardines que nos muestra Laing nos habla de su vida, de sus paisajes, de sus vivencias en diferentes ciudades y va trazando un mapa alrededor de las cosas que decía John Milton o Derek Jarman, quienes también tenían un gran afán por ellos.
Los jardines de los que se hablan aquí nos muestran que todo cambia, que el mundo tiene sus ciclos, sus obras por hacer y su curiosa forma de ser. Los jardines constituyen todo un hito en Inglaterra. Los hay a cada lado, por todos lados, cuidados o no cuidados. Laing se fija en ellos y hace un esbozo desde su más tierna infancia hasta la actualidad, pasando por la pandemia en la que decidió por sí misma que construiría un jardín en su casa, aunque más que construirlo, lo remodelaría. En la pandemia, según nos cuenta, hubo un boom en Inglaterra de gente que se dedicaría a plantar flores y plantas y pequeños huertos. Esto nos dice que tener un jardín es un signo vital para mantener nuestra cordura; quien lo cuida y lo mantiene, ocupada y con la mente ordenada estará.
Pero Laing va más allá, ella nos habla de ese edén que se ha construido para sí misma. A modo de ensayo, nos pone esbozos de sus diarios mientras reconstruía el jardín. No hay nada más que ver su instagram () para empaparnos de verde y flores que ella misma ha cuidado. Nos cuenta su día a día, como sale a primera hora de la mañana para plantar bulbos o regar plantas. Sin duda Laing nos trae un libro excesivo sobre lo que implica tener un jardín, y es que es un libro denso y bastante exhaustivo sobre ellos. No técnicamente, pero sí arduamente. La autora escribe con tanto tesón que se nos vuelve un libro para leer a ratos, poco a poco, para que las palabras nos llenen con su rocío.
El jardín contra el tiempo es un libro sobre libros, sobre lo que es la jardinería y lo que es tener que llevar un jardín y todo el tiempo que nos consume. Cuando Laing se lanzó a este proyecto no sabía lo que sucedería, pero el proyecto dio sus frutos, lo argumentó, lo solventó y ahora tenemos unas vistas preciosas llenas de flores, tulipanes, rosas y todo tipo de plantas para hacernos ver que la naturaleza también puede ser una extensión de nuestra vida y nuestra alma. Naturalezas vivas que se convierten en más vida.
November 22, 2024
I finished this some time ago but haven't found a way to write meaningfully about its impact on me. I studied John Milton in graduate school and at one time hoped to become a Milton scholar, and Laing's interpretation of Milton's paradise struck such a chord with this gardener. She visits other gardens in Britain, talks about their history and that of those who cared for them, and notes the ways in which gardens aren't always welcoming spaces. Finally, her descriptions of the British garden that she restored in Suffolk, with love, respect, and serendipity, resonated with me as someone who dislikes the uniformity and neat edges of many American gardens. A garden should be a space that is carefully and lovingly tended yet which remains wild and never completely knowable.
This description, from the section on , sums it up beautifully:
"The garden serves as a kind of lodestar, an experience of nurture and richness that cannot be dismantled and might in future be recreated" (56).
I also loved her descriptions of the "revenants" of the previous gardener/owner, Mark, which might make sudden appearances even when she didn't know the plants existed in the space - beautiful flowers that she hadn't planted or purchased, but which seemingly revived from a previous life.
Above all, I loved the lesson she taught me near the end, when she's talking about the human desire for perfection: "I still wanted to tidy it up, to manage my worries by way of exerting order wherever I could. I'd probably always be a bit like that. But I'd finally understood that a little untidiness was far more fertile than perfect borders. I could see that the skin of dead leaves and sticks under the hazel had its own loveliness, protecting the soil from drying out, nourishing microbial activity, feeding the new green snouts of the day lilies. Death generating life, evidence of our fallen state. Maybe that was better than paradise" (287).
If you love gardens and the history and philosophy behind them, there is so much here that is wise and true. I covered the library copy with post-it notes, then decided I had to buy my own copy and transferred my notes into it. This is a book I will treasure and re-read.
This description, from the section on , sums it up beautifully:
"The garden serves as a kind of lodestar, an experience of nurture and richness that cannot be dismantled and might in future be recreated" (56).
I also loved her descriptions of the "revenants" of the previous gardener/owner, Mark, which might make sudden appearances even when she didn't know the plants existed in the space - beautiful flowers that she hadn't planted or purchased, but which seemingly revived from a previous life.
Above all, I loved the lesson she taught me near the end, when she's talking about the human desire for perfection: "I still wanted to tidy it up, to manage my worries by way of exerting order wherever I could. I'd probably always be a bit like that. But I'd finally understood that a little untidiness was far more fertile than perfect borders. I could see that the skin of dead leaves and sticks under the hazel had its own loveliness, protecting the soil from drying out, nourishing microbial activity, feeding the new green snouts of the day lilies. Death generating life, evidence of our fallen state. Maybe that was better than paradise" (287).
If you love gardens and the history and philosophy behind them, there is so much here that is wise and true. I covered the library copy with post-it notes, then decided I had to buy my own copy and transferred my notes into it. This is a book I will treasure and re-read.
July 3, 2024
This book travels back and forth between the author's restoration of a garden in a home she and her husband bought and a general history of gardens.
I was surprised when early on the author states that gardens were a tool of oppression, but she goes on to prove her point by showing the history of how wealthy landowners expanded their properties, reworked the land and otherwise enclosed open areas for themselves, their properties, etc.
I will also state that as much as she rails against the rich, she undercuts her own arguments by illustrating the failure of co-op gardens, liberated 'serfs', etc. to flourish. Nor is she realistic in expecting that everyone should have a garden. She seems to be okay with less technological progress, which have done much to lift up the daily lives of the poor, in favor of individuals not migrating to cities and working on their small plots.
There is also a certain hubris to the author's description of purchasing a varied and various set of plants and flowers for her garden and thinking that's an option for everyone. I appreciate that she doesn't water her garden when England is hit with a major drought and risks losing many of her beloved plants. How she thinks those not as well off as her would manage I don't know.
There was a lot of garden history to be gained by reading this book, but overall, I didn't love it.
I was surprised when early on the author states that gardens were a tool of oppression, but she goes on to prove her point by showing the history of how wealthy landowners expanded their properties, reworked the land and otherwise enclosed open areas for themselves, their properties, etc.
I will also state that as much as she rails against the rich, she undercuts her own arguments by illustrating the failure of co-op gardens, liberated 'serfs', etc. to flourish. Nor is she realistic in expecting that everyone should have a garden. She seems to be okay with less technological progress, which have done much to lift up the daily lives of the poor, in favor of individuals not migrating to cities and working on their small plots.
There is also a certain hubris to the author's description of purchasing a varied and various set of plants and flowers for her garden and thinking that's an option for everyone. I appreciate that she doesn't water her garden when England is hit with a major drought and risks losing many of her beloved plants. How she thinks those not as well off as her would manage I don't know.
There was a lot of garden history to be gained by reading this book, but overall, I didn't love it.
May 20, 2024
My first time reading Laing. I had wanted this work to have more critical teeth, to dive deeper into its subjects in each chapter and deconstruct the topics with more insight.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t spark any new ways of thinking. It cites Sebald (Rings of Saturn) and Jarman (Modern Nature) in a manner that lightly summarises them, but doesn’t climb into their works in any notable way. There are too many ankle-depth overviews; that the slavery that built grandiose gardens was ‘bad�, and other such things that are already a given.
It is tiring to read about garden states and socialist stalwarts from a writer who married up into a middle class life of privilege; of a walled garden, a greenhouse, outhouses. The book isn’t a rallying call; just an overview of the fact that some people existed, with little extrapolation of how those existences can apply to contemporary struggles.
Read Sebald. Read Jarman. Read ‘Spirit of Place� by Susan Owen; a similar topic, infinitely more critically engaging and deeply researched than ‘A Garden Against Time.�
The fact that this book became a Sunday Times Number One bestseller perhaps tells us all we need to know. A favourite of Cotswold homeowners, who like to read feel-good tomes about socialist ideals, but still vote Conservative.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t spark any new ways of thinking. It cites Sebald (Rings of Saturn) and Jarman (Modern Nature) in a manner that lightly summarises them, but doesn’t climb into their works in any notable way. There are too many ankle-depth overviews; that the slavery that built grandiose gardens was ‘bad�, and other such things that are already a given.
It is tiring to read about garden states and socialist stalwarts from a writer who married up into a middle class life of privilege; of a walled garden, a greenhouse, outhouses. The book isn’t a rallying call; just an overview of the fact that some people existed, with little extrapolation of how those existences can apply to contemporary struggles.
Read Sebald. Read Jarman. Read ‘Spirit of Place� by Susan Owen; a similar topic, infinitely more critically engaging and deeply researched than ‘A Garden Against Time.�
The fact that this book became a Sunday Times Number One bestseller perhaps tells us all we need to know. A favourite of Cotswold homeowners, who like to read feel-good tomes about socialist ideals, but still vote Conservative.
April 23, 2024
Olivia Laing seems incapable of boring me. I’m not a gardening person, I didn’t recognise a single plant in here and I knew maybe 20% of her art or literary and historical references. But she’s just so good at telling a story and if you have any interest in culture, politics or memoir, she’s going to find a way to hook you in to her latest passion until you care too.
June 30, 2024
I have never really been interested in the hobby of gardening... until this book. What a gem. It's part plants and flowers, part British history, part political rant, part pandemic book. And I loved it all. Such beautiful stamps in the chapter-breaks as well.
Having a lot of luck with my non-fiction reading this year!
Having a lot of luck with my non-fiction reading this year!
August 10, 2024
Always a pleasure to read Laing's work, and this one was particularly good solely for its subject matter. My imagination and knowledge of flowers/plants failed me many times, yet I could still see her garden in my mind's eye and felt the same sense of wonder and tranquility from the naturalistic prose as she seemed to take from the construction of both the novel and the garden.
I always appreciate how seamlessly she weaves history, culture, politics and spirituality into her writing; I feel as if I get to learn so many new things without even trying, all whilst being immersed in the world she spins of plants and England. I particularly enjoyed her inclusion of William Morris, as well as the complex interconnectedness of the slave trade to high end gardens/landscaping. Laing does not back down from the hypocrisies and troublesome areas of the subjects she is tackling, even if they remain close to her heart. I simply love the way her brain works.
I always appreciate how seamlessly she weaves history, culture, politics and spirituality into her writing; I feel as if I get to learn so many new things without even trying, all whilst being immersed in the world she spins of plants and England. I particularly enjoyed her inclusion of William Morris, as well as the complex interconnectedness of the slave trade to high end gardens/landscaping. Laing does not back down from the hypocrisies and troublesome areas of the subjects she is tackling, even if they remain close to her heart. I simply love the way her brain works.
October 17, 2024
In 2020 at the start of the pandemic, Olivia Laing began to restore a walled garden in Suffolk, England, created by the deceased gardener Mark Rumary. As the book description on ŷ says, “the work drew her into an exhilarating investigation of paradise and its long association with gardens. Moving between real and imagined gardens, from Milton’s Paradise Lost to John Clare’s enclosure elegies, from a wartime sanctuary in Italy to a grotesque aristocratic pleasure ground funded by slavery, Laing interrogates the sometimes shocking cost of making paradise on earth.� And, I shall add, with self-inspection on the meaning of life.
This essay connection is a blend of history, nature and conservation, memoir and literature analysis. It’s a perfect companion book to listen to while gardening myself.
This essay connection is a blend of history, nature and conservation, memoir and literature analysis. It’s a perfect companion book to listen to while gardening myself.
February 22, 2025
Ik vond hier eigenlijk helemaal niks aan, dit viel me zo tegen!!
Ik had of een heerlijk historisch overzicht gewild van tuinen en tuinieren, of een persoonlijk verslag van hoe ze haar historische tuin in Surrey restaureerde.
Dit is een beetje van het laatste, met heel veel literaire verwijzingen die niet origineel zijn en die ik al eerder in andere boeken ben tegengekomen. Niks origineels dus.
Niks over de betekenis van tuinen tegenwoordig, alleen gezeur over de pandemie en Trump. En over beide heb ik wel genoeg gehoord.
Oninteressant, niet boeiend en inspiratieloos. Zo zonde, want ik had me hier echt op verheugd.
Ik had of een heerlijk historisch overzicht gewild van tuinen en tuinieren, of een persoonlijk verslag van hoe ze haar historische tuin in Surrey restaureerde.
Dit is een beetje van het laatste, met heel veel literaire verwijzingen die niet origineel zijn en die ik al eerder in andere boeken ben tegengekomen. Niks origineels dus.
Niks over de betekenis van tuinen tegenwoordig, alleen gezeur over de pandemie en Trump. En over beide heb ik wel genoeg gehoord.
Oninteressant, niet boeiend en inspiratieloos. Zo zonde, want ik had me hier echt op verheugd.
January 23, 2025
One of those delightful books that has added a bunch more books to my to-read pile alongside feeding my deep longing to have a garden of my own to plant.
June 12, 2024
Olivia Laing is such an accomplished writer - I love the way she so cleverly draws so many different threads together. In this book, she takes us through the creation of a wonderful garden over the space of a few years and her descriptions of the seasons and plant life are just beautiful. Along the way she touches on colonisation, slavery and plantation money and the wealthy families and soulless gardens that came from it, Derek Jarman and his garden of course is discussed, as well as a climate change- all of it wonderfully interwoven. I don’t think I felt as connected to this book as Lonely City and Everybody but still a pleasurable read.
August 24, 2024
Ik neem veel waardevolle geschiedenis en inzichten mee uit dit boek. Maar deze wordt wel mijn mantra: To accept the presence of death in the garden is not to accept the forced march of climate change. It is to refuse an illusion of perpetual productivity, without rest or repair: an illusion purchased at a heavy, soon unpayable cost, inaugurating a summer without end, the fields burning, the trees like stones.
Echt een aanrader. Ik kijk nooit meer op dezelfde manier naar mijn tuin en naar Gardner’s World
Echt een aanrader. Ik kijk nooit meer op dezelfde manier naar mijn tuin en naar Gardner’s World
September 22, 2024
I am truly sorry that this book is over.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 353 reviews
Can't find what you're looking for?
Get help and learn more about the design.