Grounding by Lulah Ellender review – a literary hymn to gardening
September 2020
From simple actions to self-reliance: Josh Byrne's sustainable home upgrades for every budget
Retrofitting your house or apartment to use less energy doesn’t have to be an expensive exercise
January 2018
Digested read
A Monk’s Guide to a Clean House and Mind by Shoukei Matsumoto – digested read
John Crace simplifies Buddhist teaching on lightbulb cleaning, personal hygiene and other domestic essentials
October 2017
Book of the day
Life in the Garden by Penelope Lively review – green fingers, silver trowels
Despite its strong focus on gardeners from the upper classes, Penelope Lively’s horticultural memoir is a book to treasure
Growth strategies: illustrated houseplants – in pictures
A new book by Emma Sibley of London Terrariums guides readers through 70 different plants by way of beautiful watercolours
Digested read
Mary’s Household Tips and Tricks by Mary Berry – digested read
John Crace devours the nuggets of wisdom from the master baker’s domestic bible
April 2017
Digested read
At Home at Highclere: Entertaining at the Real Downton Abbey by the Countess of Carnarvon – digested read
John Crace takes a quick tour of the stately book that allows fans of aristocratic TV drama to glimpse another life
July 2016
Top 10s
Top 10 books about gardens
From theatres of social snobbery to fiery manifestos for rewilding, these volumes show that gardening can be sexy, scary and sometimes scandalous
January 2016
Digested read
Spark Joy: An Illustrated Guide to the Japanese Art of Tidying by Marie Kondo – digested read
‘A stray sock on the floor can end in coats piled on a chair … sometimes even in death’
October 2015
Wendy Whiteley's secret Sydney garden is safe for decades to come
The lease on the Lavender Bay site that Brett Whiteley’s widow transformed from landfill to lush urban oasis has been extended by at least 30 years
September 2015
Wendy Whiteley's (not so) secret garden and her one-woman mission to save it
Born out of grief following the death of Brett Whiteley, Wendy has tended an unofficial garden overlooking Sydney’s Lavender Bay for 23 years
August 2015
Georgian Menagerie: Exotic Animals in Eighteenth-Century London by Christopher Plumb – review
Lions on Tottenham Court Road, camels on the Strand … England’s capital once teemed with beasts
July 2015
Best holiday reads 2015
Authors, critics and philosophers tell us which books they will be reading on the beach
June 2015
The Gardens of the British Working Class by Margaret Willes review – forgotten history
This wonderfully rich study, stretching from the 16th century to the postwar era, reveals the story of the ‘ordinary gardeners’ of Britain
May 2015
Jonathan Jones on art
The Shakespeare code: why the Bard portrait ‘discovery’ is provable guff
The story of how William Shakespeare’s face was revealed through symbols in a 1597 gardening manual is a concoction worthy of Dan Brown
October 2014
Rising Ground: A Search for the Spirit of Place review – Philip Marsden’s love letter to Cornwall
A thought-provoking exploration of Cornish lives and landscapes has an affinity with the work of Simon Armitage, writes Kate Kellaway
August 2014
Everyman's Castle: The Story of Our Cottages, Country Houses, Terraces, Flats, Semis and Bungalows – review
Michael Prodger enjoys Philippa Lewis's lively survey of housing that is as much a story of attitudes as architecture
July 2014
Steven Poole on words
How to talk like an estate agent – seven tips
Read any property 'literature' lately? Then you'll be familiar with a language renowned for its strangulated syntax, peculiar vocabulary and relentless euphemism, writes Steven Poole
April 2014
Digested read
HRH the Prince of Wales: Highgrove: A Garden Celebrated by Bunny Guinness – digested read
John Crace prunes back the Prince of Wales's account of his Gloucestershire grounds to a blossoming 800 words
