The Garden Against Time

This isn’t a historical survey of gardening, much less a practical guide, so much as an inquiry into the idea of the garden — its history and poetics, its relationship to sex, imagination and power. Laing belongs in an as-yet-undefined and perhaps undefinable class of prose artists who blend feeling and analysis, speculation and research, wit and instruction as they track down the elusive patterns and inescapable contradictions of modern experienceNew York Times

Buzzing and epic . . . like all Laing’s works, this one is a joyful expansion on the meaning of the subject it undertakes . . . The history of gardens and gardening is a fascinating subject, but The Garden Against Time asks for more. Laing seeks a communal space where we can cherish what is most beautiful about being alive. The possiblities are what matterWashington Post

What a wonderful book this is. I loved the enchanting and beautifully written story but also the fascinating and thoughtful excursions along the wayNigel Slater

A sharp and enthralling memoir of the garden’s contradiction: dream and reality, life and death, the fascination of cultivation and the political horrors that it can disguiseNeil Tennant