So Very Rosemary
by Barbara Paul Robinson
Category: Biography & Autobiography

The biography of the inspiring woman who found late-in-life success as “a powerhouse of British garden design” (Booklist). Rosemary Verey was a great English gardening legend. Although she embraced gardening late in life, she quickly achieved international renown. She was the acknowledged apostle of the “English style,” on display at her home at Barnsley House, the “must have” adviser to the rich and famous—including Prince Charles and Elton John—and a wildly popular lecturer in America. Born between the two World Wars, she could have easily lived a predictable and comfortable life, but a devastating accident changed everything. Then, with her architect-husband, she went on to create the gardens at their home that became a mandatory stop on every garden tour in the 1980s and 1990s. At sixty-two, she wrote her first book, followed by seventeen more in twenty years. By force of character, hard work, and determination, she tirelessly promoted herself and her garden lessons, traveling worldwide to lecture, sell books, and spread her message. She was a natural teacher, encouraging her American fans to believe that they were fully capable of creating beautiful gardens while validating their quest for a native vernacular. She also re-introduced the English to their own gardening traditions. Drawing from garden history and its literature, she developed a language of classical formal design, embellished with her exuberant planting style. Rosemary Verey, in her life as in her work, was the very personification of the English garden style. This book is for anyone who believes a garden makes one small part of this earth a little more beautiful.