Books
The Tudor House and Garden: architecture and landscape in the 16th and early 17th centuries
This book focuses for the first time on 16th- and early 17th- century country houses and their settings. Investigating the complex relationship between Tudor and early Stuart houses and the landscapes in which they were set, Paula Henderson offers new perspectives on some of England’s most magical buildings. She examines natural and man-made landscapes as well as gatehouses, garden buildings, banqueting houses and other ancillary structures. Drawing on new documentary material and on research into many undiscovered buildings associated with original settings, Henderson refutes common perceptions that gardens of the period were confined and highly artificial and that ‘natural’ landscapes and wildernesses were not appreciated until the 18th century. She explains how and why Tudor country estates were organized and designed, and she provides a new evaluation of what the gardens and other aspects of the landscape meant to those who created and visited them. More than 250 splendid images illustrate the book.
Reviews
‘Highly original’, ‘beautifully written and lucid’, ‘a major exercise in historical recovery’: winner of the William MB Berger Prize for British Art History, 2005
‘An intriguing book … a volume that is handsome as well as learned’, J. Mordaunt Crook, The Times Literary Supplement
‘A new garden history’, John Harris, The Art Newspaper
‘A magnificent achievement’, Lucy Worsley, Cornerstone
‘A landmark in the study of Tudor and Jacobean gardens’, John Schofield, Sixteenth Century Journal
Treehouses
Treehouses explores these ever-popular structures around the world: from the treehouse-dwelling tradition of South Sea hunter-gatherers to the Green Magic eco-treehouse resort in Kerala, India; from the 400-year-old chapel-in-an-oak in Normandy to the ‘tree nest’ and ‘tree tunnel’ built by John Malkevich for his children. As children’s hideaways, ornamental garden features, spiritual retreats and even as offices, studios and full-time homes, treehouses provide places of isolation, independence and imagination, where one can literally rise above the demands of daily life. Praised as ‘the last word on the subject’.
Reviews
‘This unusual and wonderful book will certainly appeal to people of all ages’, Bunny Guinness, The Garden (Royal Horticultural Society journal)
‘Clearly a labour of love to research and create’, David Shortall, Compass
‘A real book with real content … a detailed and scholarly history, deliciously identifying no fewer than four “golden ages” of treehouse building’, The Telegraph (London)
‘A superb book which is likely to enchant anyone who has ever climbed a tree’, Bryan Masterson, Compass
