by HughCavendish (Author), Grania Cavendish (Photographer)
At once a history of Holker Hall in Cumbria, the story of a family, a life, a community and an exploration of continuity with the past and adaptation to the modern age.
Hugh Cavendish, Baron Cavendish of Furness, owner of Holker Hall in Cumbria, writes about the history of Holker, which dates back to the sixteenth century and has never been bought or sold but has passed by inheritance through the family line, with each generation leaving its impressions. He writes too about his family - his grandparents who, faced with 'serious financial embarrassment' sat down with a list to find savings and 'having identified essentials, they agreed to give up taking Country Life and having hot water and lemon after dinner' - but still thought it not unreasonable to plan to divert a river to run through the park; his mother ('relations with my mother were never good, and often spectacularly bad'); his aunts (collectively identified as the 'Aunt Heap'). He describes his own life, as a child at Holker ('when I look back I allow myself the indulgence of believing I was not quite as stupid as my schoolmasters held me to be; nor quite as lazy) and later as the owner of Holker, finding a way of managing huge resources and responsibilities and also immense debt. And, of course, he writes about the garden.
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 272
Publisher: Frances Lincoln
Published: 14 Jun 2012
ISBN 10: 0711232849
ISBN 13: 9780711232846
`This may be a unique account (I do not know another) of how a garden links and divides generations; sometimes painfully personal, yet purposeful, resourceful, and finally hugely successful.'
'On the back jacket of this book the author is photographed... his humorous, weather-beaten face gazes out from beneath a wide-brimmed hat - and you know immediately that you are going to be enjoy being drawn into his world'
'This is the story of a family, a life, a community and an exploration of continuity with the past and adaption to the modern age'
'This is the story of both the titled Lord and the ordinary perceptive human being who finds peace in his own garden'
'This is the story of a family, a life, a community and an exploration of continuity with the past and adaption to the modern age'
An excellent read for all garden lovers, local history buffs, anyone who has ever visited Holker Hall and even those who haven't because A Time to Plant will ensure you do.
'Plenty for the historian, amateur gardener and serious plantsmen'
'For sheer fun, A Time to Plant beats anything I've read this year'
'The photographs are uniformly excellent, making one want to rush immediately to Holker or even attempt to grow some of the plants depicted'
'Today Hugh Cavendish spends his timing gazing at the running waters, thinking, waiting for the trout to respond to the fly. In this book he ruminates on a long and fortunate life, reading the swirling waters, thinking, recollecting, philosophising, and catching those rare moments of enchantment in a garden'
'The idea that knowledge of, as well as care and respect for, your subject leads to improved artistic output is clearly on display within the pages of A Time to Plant'
'...an account of what art is, the art here being not a painting, a novel or a symphony, but a garden...Gardening, as seen by Hugh Cavendish, is a context for other things, a means of giving and taking pleasure, a continuing experience rather than a thing completed, and a joint venture (with Grania).'
'Pleasingly detailed, horticulturally inspiring, gently opinionated, affectionate and at times very funny; in short, a love letter both to and from an all-consuming house and garden'
'The imaginative and creative gardening partnership between the author and his wife, Grania, photographer, artist and his catalyst, has not only produced one of the great gardens of England but also this fascinating book... The book teaches as well as enchants ... a huge pleasure.'
'On the back jacket of this book the author is photographed... his humorous, weather-beaten face gazes out from beneath a wide-brimmed hat - and you know immediately that you are going to be enjoy being drawn into his world'
` This may be a unique account (I do not know another) of how a garden links and divides generations; sometimes painfully personal, yet purposeful, resourceful, and finally hugely successful.'
Hugh Cavendish, Baron Cavendish of Furness FRSA, is a landowner and politician. He owns Holker Hall and its surrounding estates overlooking Morecambe Bay in Cumbria and serves in the House of Lords as a Conservative life peer. He has also been High Sheriff of Cumbria and a member of Cumbria County Council and is currently President of the Dry Stone Walling Association of Great Britain.
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