The Artist And The Garden, by Roy Strong (Yale University Press, £29.95)

WHATEVER it may represent today as a weekly television slot of bra-less horticultural entertainment, the fact remains that the garden began life as a vanity of the English aristocracy.

But we are not talking about the familiar oblong area of marigolds, wallflowers and manicured lawns that would later personify countless suburban gardens from Portland to Pinner, Brighton to Birmingham.

No. The subject in hand is the gilt-edged creations of some of the greatest landscape gardeners of their time. For in a golden era that spanned three centuries, from the Tudor period until the sentimental pastoral creations in oil and canvas of John Constable, the great English garden was a force with which to be reckoned.

This wonderful book explains in minute detail how this green revolution was accomplished.

In an age where the rich and influential wheeled and dealed in affairs of state and the world of commerce, immortality was achieved in any number of ways. And if the country house was the earthly confirmation of success, then the garden came a close second, especially if recorded for posterity by an artist's brush.

In The Artist And The Garden, Sir Roy surveys 300 years of the English garden as captured in portraits, paintings, engravings and drawings. He has assembled several hundred images that cover every garden style, from the days of Henry VIII to the Regency period.

Sir Roy sheds light on the evolution of the garden in this country, first as a symbol, then as a prized possession and painted in its own right, writing with great authority with both the expert and general reader in mind.

This is undoubtedly an easy-on-the-eye read. There are 320 annotated illustrations, each with in-depth explanations of how each garden came to be laid out, showing in detail the hidden corners that hint at the thinking of their creators.

Sir Roy is widely respected as a consultant on gardens and their design. He has assisted the Prince Of Wales, Gianni Versace and Elton John among others, and lives in Herefordshire where he has created the largest private formal garden made in Britain since 1945.

John Phillpott