Perennial Pleasures

More about the book

Is there any pleasure in the world that quite matches a lazy summer afternoon in a flower garden? Blooms in profusion, shrubs and saplings and great trees, a gentle breeze and the sun's rays dancing over it all ... we feel a release from all pressing cares and float contentedly on a sea of delight. Ever since Virgil celebrated the joys of Spring, great poets and writers in abundance have been inspired to observe the special qualities of flowers and gardens. From Richard Sheridan to Vita Sackville-West, John Ruskin to an anonymous Japanese proverb, their wise words are matched here with masterworks from the Metropolitan Museum of Art - Millet's Garden Scene, Matisse's Pansies on a Table, David Hockney's Mount Fuji and Flowers and many others.