The Garden Against Time: In Search of a Common Paradise by Olivia Laing
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 Garden Against Time is a beautiful and exacting account of the abundant pleasures and possibilities of gardens: not as a place to hide from the world but as a site of encounter and discovery, bee-loud and pollen-laden.
Every purchase you make supports the work of Shakespeare's Globe. Thank you!
Detail
Author: Olivia Laing
Format: Hardback
Size: 144mm x 224mm
Pages: 336
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 Garden Against Time is a beautiful and exacting account of the abundant pleasures and possibilities of gardens: not as a place to hide from the world but as a site of encounter and discovery, bee-loud and pollen-laden.
Every purchase you make supports the work of Shakespeare's Globe. Thank you!
Detail
Author: Olivia Laing
Format: Hardback
Size: 144mm x 224mm
Pages: 336
We aim to deliver shop products within:
UK – 1-5 business days
Europe – 1-2 weeks
Rest of world – 1-3 weeks
Please note: Print to order products are dispatched separately to the rest of your order. This means that if you order these items alongside other shop products, they won’t all arrive together, and you’ll get several deliveries.
We aim to deliver shop products within:
UK – 1-5 business days
Europe – 1-2 weeks
Rest of world – 1-3 weeks
Please note: Print to order products are dispatched separately to the rest of your order. This means that if you order these items alongside other shop products, they won’t all arrive together, and you’ll get several deliveries.
The Garden Against Time: In Search of a Common Paradise by Olivia Laing
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 Garden Against Time is a beautiful and exacting account of the abundant pleasures and possibilities of gardens: not as a place to hide from the world but as a site of encounter and discovery, bee-loud and pollen-laden.
Every purchase you make supports the work of Shakespeare's Globe. Thank you!
Detail
Author: Olivia Laing
Format: Hardback
Size: 144mm x 224mm
Pages: 336
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 Garden Against Time is a beautiful and exacting account of the abundant pleasures and possibilities of gardens: not as a place to hide from the world but as a site of encounter and discovery, bee-loud and pollen-laden.
Every purchase you make supports the work of Shakespeare's Globe. Thank you!
Detail
Author: Olivia Laing
Format: Hardback
Size: 144mm x 224mm
Pages: 336
We aim to deliver shop products within:
UK – 1-5 business days
Europe – 1-2 weeks
Rest of world – 1-3 weeks
Please note: Print to order products are dispatched separately to the rest of your order. This means that if you order these items alongside other shop products, they won’t all arrive together, and you’ll get several deliveries.
We aim to deliver shop products within:
UK – 1-5 business days
Europe – 1-2 weeks
Rest of world – 1-3 weeks
Please note: Print to order products are dispatched separately to the rest of your order. This means that if you order these items alongside other shop products, they won’t all arrive together, and you’ll get several deliveries.
