Overview

Frank and Marjorie Lawley have spent almost 40 years at Herterton House, a 16th century farmhouse on the Wallington Estate, near Cambo (birthplace of Capability Brown) in Northumberland. When they leased Herterton from the National Trust in 1976, the Lawleys took on a series of derelict farm buildings. This highly original and personal book describes in detail how, with patience and passion, they restored Herterton House and created an exquisite and unique garden. As well as discussing the practicalities involved, it also describes the influences and the lifetime of thinking behind their achievement. Within its mere acre, the garden at Herterton House provides more visual interest and more interesting plants (plants you can also buy from its small nursery) than many gardens twenty times its size. It also stimulates visitors to think about what plants to use and how to use them, about the history of English gardens, about the relation of the past to the present and about the relation of a garden to the landscape around it. This book records and celebrates Frank and Marjorie's achievement over four decades at Herterton House. With photographs by Val Corbett and an introduction by Charles Quest-Ritson.

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9781910258583

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Reviews

Reviews of the house and gardens at Herterton: Heavenly in a way which I have not seen elsewhere in England. - Robin Lane-Fox Herterton is one of the most influential English gardens to be created since the end of World War II. - Daily Telegraph A living work of art in a one-acre plot. - Sunday Times A masterpiece of patient brilliance that sums up the artists' vision. the best of British gardening in the past 30 years. - Financial Times

Frank and Marjorie Lawley have been making and tending a deeply considered acre of garden for almost 40 years. I am one of the admirers of its striving for unity without repetition and its exceptionally subtle use of shapes and colours. Now Frank has given us a full study of its making. He tells it with unusual clarity and aptness. His book, Herterton House and a New Country Garden, is unmissable, a simple but penetrating account of a home and garden's formation and the Lawleys' gradual realisation of both. -- Robin Lane-Fox Financial Times The book is a delight to read and the gardens are a joy to visit. Start your Christmas shopping early by buying the book - for anyone and everyone who loves gardens. The Journal Written in fresh, often beautifully simple language, which has an emotional resonance that's rare in a garden book. The design is just right for this thoughtful book. This is a gem of a book, destined to become a classic. -- Susie White The English Garden ' A remarkable book..uniquely engaging, should also be read for its wisdom and its poetry. The Lady

Written in fresh, often beautifully simple language, which has an emotional resonance that's rare in a garden book. The design is just right for this thoughtful book. This is a gem of a book, destined to become a classic. -- Susie White The English Garden ' A remarkable book..uniquely engaging, should also be read for its wisdom and its poetry. The Lady Herterton is one of the most influential English gardens to be created since the end of World War II. Daily Telegraph A living work of art in a one-acre plot. Sunday Times A masterpiece of patient brilliance that sums up the artists' vision. the best of British gardening in the past 30 years. Financial Times Heavenly in a way which I have not seen elsewhere in England. -- Robin Lane-Fox

a fascinatingly personal account...chatty and engaging, it's fully a memoir, only incidentally a gardening guide. -- David Sexton Evening Standard Best Gardening Books of 2015 Lovingly penned, deeply personal and strangely moving, it speaks volumes about the intense relationship that a gardener gradually forges with the space that he/she tends. Irish Times The Lawleys are unique in today's fashion-driven gardening world, 'doing their own thing', doing it superlatively. The book is required reading for any rookie garden maker, and the garden itself should be on everyone's visiting itinerary while its begetters are still above ground. -- David Wheeler The Oldie For anyone who enjoys visiting gardens, there are few pleasures to match that of discovering a hidden jewel in an out of the way corner. That in a way is the sort of experience I have had in encountering this engaging book. Topiarius Frank and Marjorie Lawley have been making and tending a deeply considered acre of garden for almost 40 years. I am one of the admirers of its striving for unity without repetition and its exceptionally subtle use of shapes and colours. Now Frank has given us a full study of its making. He tells it with unusual clarity and aptness. His book, Herterton House and a New Country Garden, is unmissable, a simple but penetrating account of a home and garden's formation and the Lawleys' gradual realisation of both. -- Robin Lane-Fox Financial Times The book is a delight to read and the gardens are a joy to visit. Start your Christmas shopping early by buying the book - for anyone and everyone who loves gardens. The Journal Written in fresh, often beautifully simple language, which has an emotional resonance that's rare in a garden book. The design is just right for this thoughtful book. This is a gem of a book, destined to become a classic. -- Susie White The English Garden ' A remarkable book..uniquely engaging, should also be read for its wisdom and its poetry. The Lady

Heavenly in a way which I have not seen elsewhere in England. -- Robin Lane-Fox Herterton is one of the most influential English gardens to be created since the end of World War II. Daily Telegraph A living work of art in a one-acre plot. Sunday Times A masterpiece of patient brilliance that sums up the artists' vision. the best of British gardening in the past 30 years. Financial Times

Author Information

Christopher John Lawley was born in Bloxwich, Staffordshire and has been known as Frank for over sixty years. His wife Marjorie was born Marjorie Louisa Tinlin at Wallington in Northumberland. In an attempt to understand something of the essence of Englishness as expressed in the English landscape, they have spent the past four decades rescuing Herterton House near Wallington, a long-abandoned sixteenth century farmhouse, and designing, creating and maintaining around it a new but appropriate country garden. Val Corbett is a freelance photographer based in the Lowther Valley on the eastern fringe of the Lake District. She is well known for her landscape photography which features in books such as Winter in the Lake District, A Year in the Life of the Eden Valley and Rainy Days in the Lake District. Her most recent book Arts and Crafts Houses of the Lake District demonstrates her skill in photographing interiors. Charles Quest-Ritson is a UK-based writer and journalist specialising in horticulture and social history.

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