Norah Lindsay: The Life and Art of a Garden Designer [Hardcover]

Allyson Hayward (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 2007

In the years between the wars Norah Lindsay (1873–1948) hugely influenced the course of garden design and planting. She developed her skills in her own garden at Sutton Courtenay in Oxfordshire, widely regarded as the most beautiful garden in England. Then, in 1924, facing financial ruin after the collapse of her marriage, she embarked on a career as a garden designer. Her commissions ranged from the gardens of quiet English manor houses to the grand estates of the country house set, to royal gardens in Italy, France and Yugoslavia. She gardened in different soils and varied climates across all of England and throughout Europe. All this time she managed to give the impression that she remained 'a social butterfly, a gadfly'.  The truth is that although she dined at the tables of the rich, the next day she would be up at dawn to work with their gardeners.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Compellingly told" -- Veranda Magazine

Having lived an active life in British society, beautiful Norah Lindsay (873-1948) had her world fall around her when her long-term marriage indeed and she faced a serious financial crisis. Out on her own at age 51 in 1924, she began a career as a garden designer, using the gardening knowledge and skills learned over the years in her restoration of the grounds of the family country estate. Known for her artistic taste, she used her charm and society contacts o develop her horticultural pursuits; her first professional commissions, as well as those that followed, on the estates of members of upper echelons of society, reflect the friendships. Writing articles for the British magazine, Country Life, in a familiar letter-writing style, Lindsay effectively put forth her philosophy on garden design that promoted her capabilities. In telling her story, biographer Allyson Hayward followed the path of Lindsay, who traveled in a gypsy-like fashion from one garden site to another for the remaining twenty years of her life. The author expertly creates in this book a vivid portrait of Lindsay who so quickly established an international reputation for her landscapes.--Marilyn K. Alaimo, Chicago Botanic Garden -- Chicago Botanic Garden

About the Author

Allyson Hayward is an American garden historian.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Frances Lincoln (October 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0711225249
• ISBN-13: 978-0711225244
• Product Dimensions: 11.5 x 9.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #793,070 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars leading British garden designer of mid-1900s for estates and public works, December 2, 2007

By 

Henry Berry "Henry Berry" (Southport, CT) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Norah Lindsay: The Life and Art of a Garden Designer (Hardcover)

Though the English woman Norah Lindsay's outstanding abilities as a gardener were widely known and respected among her circle of upper-class friends including Winston Churchill, the Prince of Wales, and Edith Wharton, she never considered making a career out of this--until at 51 and divorced, she found herself with "no husband, no money, no home," as she wrote a friend. It wasn't long before Lindsay began getting commissions for garden design and landscaping from her wealthy friends for their estates and for prominent public grounds. In the remaining 20 years of her life, she accomplished more visible and lasting landscaping than most professional landscaper designers with careers lasting a lifetime.

Black-and-white period photographs from the decades of the mid 1900s when Lindsay was active give a sense of the older, traditional English upper-class society and its tastes and attachment to its property she naturally appealed to. While later color photographs, often of the same scene and juxtaposed to it, bring out the color of the landscaping.

Her landscape design and reputation carried her to major works for upper-class and royalty in Italy, France, and elsewhere in Continental Europe. This study of Lindsay's garden design by a garden design historian is a portrait of an upper-class English life style that was largely lost in the latter decades of the 1900s, after the two World Wars and with the coming of the internationalist economic and cultural developments. Among illustrated material are mementos signed by Hilaire Belloc, another friend of Lindsay's. And besides the many period and later garden photographs are many of Lindsay's friends and acquaintances, e. g., the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. Other photos such as letters of Lindsay to her sister open onto an intimate portrait of Lindsay. This finely-produced work with its balance of content by an author who is a graduate of the Harvard Landscape Institute and who traveled to many of Lindsay's surviving projects throughout Europe in her 10 years of work on the book focuses on the work, life, and social context of Norah Lindsay's work and projects so as to place her with the top level of garden designers for reasons of historical significance, stature of her projects, and garden-design aesthetics.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Must Read, November 28, 2007

By 

Sue Mack - See all my reviews

This review is from: Norah Lindsay: The Life and Art of a Garden Designer (Hardcover)

This is a beautiful coffee table book...with the added bonus that it is a great read. This biography of English garden designer Norah Lindsay is lavishly illustrated with beautiful photographs of the gardens she designed during the years between the wars. It is a must for anyone interested in the history of garden design and plantings, or with an interest in the social and political events between the wars. It's not just for someone with an interest in gardens - reading about her friends was fascinating. I gave this book 5-stars because for me it was an entertaining read with a wonderful insight into Norah Lindsay's life, career, and friends.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Story Great Gardens, November 28, 2007

By 

Tati Young - See all my reviews

This review is from: Norah Lindsay: The Life and Art of a Garden Designer (Hardcover)

The book is fascinating not just because the pictures are so interesting and beautiful. Love seeing lifestyles of the rich and famous as well as showing her work then and now. Her life was so Masterpiece Theatre meets Dirty Sexy Money. I can just imagine her story of aristocracy (Prince of Wales, Lady Diana Cooper) mingling with Cafe Society (Maud Cunard, Sybil Colefax) partying with Hollywood (David Niven, Paulette Goddard, Charlie Chaplin) as a great TV series or movie. What fun!