"The love of gardening is a seed once sown that never dies" Gertrude Jekyll The first garden, we are told, was the Garden of Eden. Perhaps garden lovers have been trying to get back to paradise ever since. For beyond the hard work and disappointments, we have an ideal vision of that we would like our gardens to be: places of beauty and refreshment, which brings us close to nature and where the sheer joy of growing things gives a unique sense of fulfilment. The pleasures of gardens and gardening have been the themes of art and literature since ancient times: here to inspire us, is a selection of choice pieces. AUTHOR: John Train has written hundreds of columns in the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, London's Financial Times, and other publications, as well as over 20 books on many subjects. Also a number of amusing little books, including John Train Most Remarkable Names, Most Remarkable Occurences, Wit: The Best Things Ever Said, Love, and others, which have proven to be perennial popular stocking stuffers. He has received several appointments from US Presidents of both parties. He and his wife live in New York and Maine. Linda Kelly's previous books include The Young Romantics, Women of the French Revolution and most recently Holland House: A History of London's most celebrated Salon. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and the Wordsworth Trust. Her husband is the writer Laurence Kelly; they live in London and spend some time in Ireland, where they have a cottage on the Wexford coast. SELLING POINTS: Describing the joy of gardens has been a pleasure for prose writers, poets and painters, since earliest times, as the selections in this book delightfully reveal 62 colour and 11 b/w illustrations