Modern Nature

The most beautiful & furious book of all time – Olivia LaingAn essential – urgent – book for the 21st Century – Hans Ulrich Obrist, Artistic Director of the Serpentine Gallery

A marvellous, moving book

* Sunday Telegraph *Jarman gave his garden a certain narrative; perhaps he treated it a bit like a film or theatre set. His films were visionary, eccentric, romantic and rebellious, all of which could also be said about his garden * Guardian *It’s hard not to warm to the man who, in the face of all the personal and professional hardships described in this book, can still regard himself as ‘the most fortunate film-maker of my generation * Guardian *An inspiring diary of a life well lived * BBC Gardeners’ World *Joy and life and more life and more joy and street corners and making a garden out of stones and making films and love – Tilda Swinton

Derek Jarman was born in London in 1942. His career spanned decades and genres, from painter, theatre designer, director, film maker, to poet, writer, campaigner and gardener. His features include Sebastiane (1976), Jubilee (1978), Caravaggio (1986), The Last of England (1987), Edward II (1991) and Blue (1993). His paintings - for which he was a Turner Prize nominee in 1986 - continue to be exhibited worldwide, and his garden in Dungeness remains a site of pilgrimage to fans and newcomers alike.

Olivia Laing is an internationally acclaimed writer and critic. They’re the author of eight books, including The Lonely City, Everybody and the Sunday Times number one bestseller The Garden Against Time. Laing’s first novel, Crudo, won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and in 2018 they were awarded the Windham-Campbell Prize for non-fiction. They are an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Academy of Arts and their books have been translated into twenty-one languages.