An Englishman's Home - Hardcover

Dyke, Tom Hart

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0593056981 ISBN 13: 9780593056981

Publisher: Bantam Press, 2007

Synopsis

Tom Hart Dyke has a bit of a thing about plants. You might call it an obsession. You might call him certifiable, in fact. But it's a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a large ramshackle country estate and an obsession with plant collecting could want for only one thing - in Tom's case it's a walled garden containing examples of plants collected from every corner of the globe. Tom's infectious enthusiasm for anything with chlorophyll in it and the hugely ambitious World Garden project he has undertaken at his family home, Lullingstone Castle, in Kent are currently being documented in a 12-part television series for BBC 2. The first six parts ("Save Lullingstone Castle") were shown in spring 2006, and the second six episodes ("Return to Lullingstone Castle") will go out in spring 2007 to coincide with publication. Tom's attempts to set up the World Garden aren't exactly straightforward. For example, you might imagine that the easiest way to start preparing the ground inside the walled Elizabethan garden, which he transforms into the main part of the world garden would be to enlist the help of a few people and a lot of hard digging. Well not for Tom, who enlists instead two large pigs, who do indeed do a great job of turning over the earth and fertilising it with great organic manure. But the problem is that they keep escaping into the Hart Dyke family burial plot next door where they start digging up Tom's ancestors...The point of the WorldGarden is to both to bring together a truly amazing collection of plants from every continent and so to show the global origins of the plants we all grow in our gardens. It's already establishing itself as a tourist attraction of some note as well as an educational resource. This is a book for all those who bought Tim Smit's "Lost Gardens of Heligan". It's stuffed full of fascinating botanical information as well as the story of Tom's hapless struggle to overcome huge logistical nightmares. It's a riveting, hilarious story of English eccentricity in full bloom.

About this title

About the Author

Tom Hart Dyke is a plant collector whose enthusiasm for orchids led him to the Darien Gap in Central America where he was captured (with his travelling companion Paul Winder) by FARC guerrillas and held hostage for nine months. They book of their experiences, The Cloud Garden, was a Sunday Times bestseller in hardback.

From the Inside Flap

Held captive by guerrillas in the mountains of Central American danger zone the Darien Gap, Tom Hart Dyke held on to his sanity bydreaming of building a garden filled with plants from every corner of the globe. He would recreate a map of the world, with indigenous plants growing in their native countries a profusion of nature s weirdest and most wonderful flora that would amaze and delight all who saw it.

Safely back home in Kent after his ordeal, Tom was struck by inspiration. If he built his dream he could finally lay his demons to rest and at the same time revive the failing fortunes of his family home, Lullingstone Castle.

An Englishman s Home charts the highs and lows of Tom s quest to build his world garden. Inspired by his own eccentric ancestors and the pioneering plant-hunters of history, Tom finds no problem insurmountable. His determination to turn Lullingstone into a major tourist attraction and centre for plant enthusiasts overrides all the obstacles that freezing conditions and financial planners can throw in his way.

This wonderful book, a must for plant enthusiasts and fans of Tom s irrepressible television appearances, is a glorious tale of English eccentricity in full bloom.

Edition details

• Publisher: Bantam Press
• Publication date: 2007
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0593056981
• ISBN 13: 9780593056981
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 336