Dear Friend and Gardener: Letters on Life and Gardening - Tapa dura

‘There is a genuine sense of honesty in what they reveal, and many insightful passages.’

'This is not a book to read all at one sitting, but to keep by your bed and sip when the mood takes you - like a heady and delicious nightcap. If you don't have it already, treat yourself. And if you have any gardeners on your Christmas list, any indecisions about presents are now resolved at a stroke.'

'This is not a book to read all at one sitting, but to keep by your bed and sip when the mood takes you - like a heady and delicious nightcap. If you don't have it already, treat yourself. And if you have any gardeners on your Christmas list, any indecisions about presents are now resolved at a stroke.'

‘ There is a genuine sense of honesty in what they reveal, and many insightful passages.’

... a delightful collection of letters ... offers a unique insight into their successes and failures. Candid, amusing, revealing and informative

My favourite read of the year is this entertaining correspondence between our two greatest living gardeners

What links and distinguishes (in both senses) these two writers is that they never pass on a received opinion about a plant or gardening practice or theory. Everything they say is rooted firmly in observation and experience so their thoughts and opinions carry weight and value

It is this book, I suspect, that many gardeners would most like to find at the ends of their beds when they wake up on Christmas morning

In this exchange of personal letters two of Britain's leading gardeners - Christopher Lloyd and Beth Chatto - share their successes and failures, and learn from each other's experiences in their two very different gardens.