By Howard Sooley

Foreword by Jamaica Kincaid

On Sale: Feb 25, 2025
Page Count: 148 pages
Publisher: Timber Press
ISBN-13: 9781643265353

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$40.00 CAD

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From artist and activist Derek Jarman, a visual and narrative exploration of his singular, paradisiacal garden, set in a most inhospitable place.

Derek Jarman, a passionate gardener from childhood, combined his painter’s eye, horticultural expertise, and ecological convictions to produce a landscape that combined flints, shells, and driftwood to create a unique paradise. This book is Derek Jarman’s own record of how this garden evolved, from its earliest beginnings in 1986 to 1994, the last year of his life.

More than 150 photographs taken by his friend and photographer Howard Sooley capture the garden at all its different stages at every season. For both gardeners and admirers of this extraordinary man, this 30th anniversary edition, with a foreword by Jamaica Kincaid, marks three decades of the book as a gardening classic, and the ongoing impact of Jarman’s transformative garden—proof of the garden space as one of ideas, philosophy, and myth—more than just a place of retreat.

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Derek Jarman was a filmmaker, artist, activist and prominent figure in avant-garde London circles from the 1970s to the ’90s, who became a voice in AIDS activism after being diagnosed in 1986. Always a gardener, he bought Prospect Cottage in the final decade of his life and made it his focal point–planting indigenous plants and pollinators, inviting nature into the shadows of the nuclear waste plant—a place which has since become iconic for being a paradise situated at the seeming ends of the earth in Dungeness, UK, one of the largest expanses of shingle (which is basically waterworn gravel) in Europe.

“Derek Jarman’s is a garden that truly acknowledges what any attempt at Eden is all about.”
Jamaica Kincaid
"Derek Jarman’s garden is an act of hope and defiance."
Jonny Bruce, head gardener at Prospect Cottage
“A beloved classic reissued.”
Landscape Architecture Magazine
“The book is Jarman’s journal of prose, poetry, and a record of his plants, tools, and found objects: all beautifully photo-illustrated by garden photographer Howard Sooley, who helped guide the filmmaker on his quest.”
Washington Gardener
“This garden book is a deeply personal document that blends plant descriptions and practical notes with poetry, memories and reflection. It often feels like a diary or a long letter, and Jarman's emotional connection to the landscape comes through on every page…Derek Jarman's Garden remains inspiring and insightful today, encouraging us to make beauty despite all challenges.”
Horticulture

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Derek Jarman

About the Author

Derek Jarman was a painter, theater designer, and filmmaker. In the 1960s he designed sets and costumes for the theater, including Jazz Calendar with Frederick Ashton and The Rake’s Progress with Ken Russell. His work in the film medium spanned the 1970s, ’80s, and ’90s, during which time he produced films such as Jubilee (1977), Caravaggio (1986), The Garden (1990), and Blue (1993). His books include Dancing Ledge (1984), Derek Jarman’s Caravaggio (1986), The Last of England (1987), and the autobiographical Modern Nature (1991).

As an activist and prominent figure in avant-garde London circles from the 1970s to the 1990s, Jarman became a voice in AIDS activism after being diagnosed in 1986. Always a gardener, he bought Prospect Cottage in the final decade of his life and made it his focal point, planting indigenous plants and inviting nature into the shadows of the nuclear waste plant. The garden has since become iconic for being a hopeful, stalwart paradise at the seeming ends of the earth in Dungeness, Kent, one of the largest expanses of shingle in Europe.

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Howard Sooley

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