Gertrude Jekyll at Munstead Wood
Gertrude Jekyll at Munstead Wood
Munstead Wood, home of Gertrude Jekyll for many years, was acquired by the National Trust in June 2023
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First published in 1996, this Pimpernel Classic edition has been redesigned and includes new photography.
Gertrude Jekyll (1843-1932) was probably the most influential garden designer of the early twentieth century. In this classic work Judith Tankard and Martin Wood explore her life and work at Munstead Wood, the Arts and Crafts style house in Surrey, designed for her by Edwin Lutyens, where she lived and gardened from 1897 until her death. Here she exercised her knowledge of architecture and local building skills, and her passion for form, grouping and colour was given full scope in the garden which she designed and worked from scratch.
Taking as a basis Gertrude Jekyll’s own photographs, scrapbooks and notebooks, and the recollections of contemporaries from Edith Wharton and Vita Sackville-West to William Robinson and Henry Francis Du Pont, the authors describe not only the building and development of the house and garden but also Jekyll’s skills both in the arts and as a businesswoman, and her collaborations with architects including Lutyens, Oliver Hill and M.H. Baillie Scott, among many others.
Martin Wood is a noted interior designer and writer on interior decoration. Previous books include Nancy Lancaster: English Country House Style (Frances Lincoln, 2005), John Fowler: Prince of Decorators (Frances Lincoln, 2007) and Sister Parish: American Style (Frances Lincoln, 2011). He edited The Unknown Gertrude Jekyll, a collection of over 200 of Jekyll's best writings (Frances Lincoln, 2006).
Judith Tankard is an architectural and garden historian. She taught at the Landscape Institute of Harvard University for more than 20 years until her retirement in 2008. She is the author of many books on landscape history including Gertrude Jekyll and the Country House (Rizzoli, 2011).
"[A] delicious volume by two leading experts . . . this book explains the processes and the very human side of a garden designer whose legacy endures.”
“Dextrously explores her many interests and varied talents to give an intriguing insight into the world of this indomitable gardener, artist and craftswoman.”
"Absorbing and readable...a genuine classic."
“This book . . . explores the many activities and enterprises in which she [Jekyll] was engaged and so presents us with a fuller picture of this remarkable woman – artist, craftswoman, designer, photographer and author. It is an excellent book, interesting, informative and enjoyable to read.”
"A poetic portrayal that strips back the formidability of Gertrude Jekyll, exposing her warm, yet vulnerable personality."
"I expect an in-depth reading will bring color to the gray days ahead this winter."
“Gertrude Jekyll at Munstead Wood is certainly worth a reissue by Pimpernel Press and shouldn’t be allowed to go out of print. Tankard is an outstanding garden writer and the modern photographs by Wood augment wonderful historic black and white photos of the gardens Jekyll designed."