Review
This is an excellent book: it will be the standard English work on Portuguese gardens for many years to come. (
BBC Gardens Illustrated )
This book will contribute to getting Portugal on the garden map and I hope it will prompt someone in that country to take up garden history. (Roy Strong
Country Life )
If you want a modern account of the gardens of Portugal this is not the book for you, but lovers of magical realism will be riveted. (
House & Garden )
This is a handsome coffee table volume that offers a great glimpse into the tranquil places that can be found throughout the country. (
Portugal magazine )
Attlee writes elegantly and informatively, moving from history to anecdote to camellia culture with ease. (
Sunday Telegraph )
Some of us have been waiting a long time for a good, up-to-date book on Portuguese gardens, and here it is at last. Helena Atlee's text is a lively balance of historical information and telling anecdotes, somewhat lighter in tone than her book on Italian gardens of a few years ago. Photographer John Ferro Sims makes the most of those gardens that are well looked after, and is kind and clever when it comes to those (ana alarmingly high proportion) which are a little ragged round the edges. (
Daily Telegraph )
How many of you know much about the historic gardens of Portugal? Perhaps you have seen a few at Sintra in its unusually favourable climate for trees and hedging. My mental image of them amounted to a few painted tiles behind stone benches and dazzling bougainvilleas between the gardens and hideous, encroaching modernity. I have been completely wrong but it has taken an excellent new book to open my eyes. As its author, Helena Attlee, aptly observes: "Thousands of visitors are drawn to Portugal each year but few of them visit its gardens. Their loss is your gain."... Her Gardens of Portugal is the essential companion, not least because she gives the addresses of the many good gardens open only by appointment. I hope their owners do not live to regret her generous research. (Robin Lane Fox
Financial Times )
About the Author
Helena Attlee is an author and journalist who has made the garden and its history her special subject. Her books include
The Gardens of Portugal Italian Gardens: A Cultural History and
Gardens of Wales (all publishd by Frances Lincoln). She lectures widely, writes for a wide range of journals and magazines, and leads specialist garden tours. She lives in Presteigne, Powys, with her husband, the photographer Alex Ramsay.
John Ferro Sims is a photographer and writer. His books include
The Renaissance of Italian Gardens and
The Renaissance of Italian Cooking both with Lorenza de'Medici, and
Landscape in Italy with Lisa St Aubin de Teran.
