Book Description

[A] collection of essays by authorities on Gertrude Jekyll's life and times and by experts on gardens and garden history from both sides of the Atlantic. The book describes 300 years of Jekyll family history, including the family's emigration to America in the eighteenth century. The book's subtitle "Essays on the life of a working amateur" echoes Gertrude Jekyll's description of herself in her first book, Wood and Garden, published in 1899. Included are contributions by three members of the Jekyll family, two great great nieces, Primrose Arnander and Annabel Freyberg, and a great nephew, David McKenna, the last surviving member of the family to have known her well, who has written the foreword and postscript. Much of this information is hitherto unpublished and is made available through the co-operation of the Jekyll Estate, as well as personal and family memories of Gertrude Jekyll, her sister and brothers. -- Cover.