Derek Jarman was a filmmaker, artist, activist and prominent figure in avant-garde London circles from the 1970s to the '90s, who became a voice in AIDS activism after being diagnosed in 1986. Always a gardener, he bought Prospect Cottage in the final decade of his life and made it his focal point-planting indigenous plants and pollinators, inviting nature into the shadows of the nuclear waste plant--a place which has since become iconic for being a paradise situated at the seeming ends of the earth in Dungeness, UK, one of the largest expanses of shingle (which is basically waterworn gravel) in Europe.

"Derek Jarman's is a garden that truly acknowledges what any attempt at Eden is all about."

--Jamaica Kincaid

"Derek Jarman's garden is an act of hope and defiance."--Jonny Bruce, head gardener at Prospect Cottage

"A beloved classic reissued."--Landscape Architecture Magazine

"The book is Jarman's journal of prose, poetry, and a record of his plants, tools, and found objects: all beautifully photo-illustrated by garden photographer Howard Sooley, who helped guide the filmmaker on his quest."--Washington Gardener

Publisher: Timber Press (OR)

Pub date: 2025-02-25

Length: 148 pages