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  • Published: 15 July 2015
  • ISBN: 9780593076019
  • Imprint: Bantam Press
  • Format: Trade Paperback
  • Pages: 576
  • RRP: $59.99

The Arcadian Friends




The true story of the invention of Britain's greatest - and most underappreciated - art form

Between 1715 and 1750, a group of politicans and poets, farmers and businessmen, heiresses and landowners began to experiment with the phenomenon that was to become the English landscape garden. Arguably the greatest British art form ever invented, these gardens were built to charm and delight, to shock and inspire all who visited. That these gardens - including Castle Howard, Stowe, Painshill and Rousham - are still so popular with visitors today is a testament to the innovation and passion of this extraordinary group of eccentrics and visionaries.

The Arcadian Friends takes a highly engaging perspective on the politics and culture of England during the Enlightenment. At the same time it will be required reading for the legions of fans of the great gardens of England.

Tim Richardson introduces us to a period of poltical and personal intrigue, where fantastic biblical landscapes competed for space with temples to sexual freedom; and where the installation of a water feature was a political act. The Arcadian Friends tells the story of a collection of fascinating characters whose influence changed the landscape of Britain for ever.

  • Published: 15 July 2015
  • ISBN: 9780593076019
  • Imprint: Bantam Press
  • Format: Trade Paperback
  • Pages: 576
  • RRP: $59.99

About the author

Tim Richardson

Tim Richardson is the world's first international confectionary historian. He also writes about gardens, landscape and theatre, and contributes to the Daily Telegraph, Country Life, House and Garden and Wallpaper*. He lives in north London.

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Praise for The Arcadian Friends

Wonderfully rich and packed with vivid details...The Arcadian Friends deserves to become a classic

Guardian

The Arcadian Friends offers an invigorating new approach to familiar garden history territory. In the company of his large cast, Richardson guides us deftly through varied landscapes full of surprises.

Sunday Telegraph

Replete with first-rate scholarship... there are many delights here

Literary Review

Richardson explains this with verve and enthusiasm, and a measure of his success is that he makes the reader want to visit, or revisit, the gardens he describes

Telegraph

Wonderfully engaging... This book gives us a way to read the landscape and see again what the original owners intended.

Spectator

Scholarly, irreverent... unashamedly populist but consciously erudite

Times Higher Education Supplement