Seasons and Castles

A beautifully realised account of visits made to some of the most extraordinary – and unfamiliar – gardens and palaces of Europe, from the shores of the western Baltic to the Atlantic coast of Andalusia.Seasons and Castles is a celebration of extraordinary places created by extraordinary people: from the Villa Buonaccorsi in Italy’s Marche region, conceived by the botanist Giovanni Battista Ferrari, to the allegorical garden designed for a miniature city by Count Franz Anton von Sporck, and from the castle garden of Valdemars Slot, used by Resistance fighters to escape Nazi occupiers, to Rex Whistler’s haunting mural at Plas Newydd on Anglesey. Motivated by a fascination with gardens as visions of paradise, Peter Davidson encounters living embodiments of hope and diversity amongst the strange and wonderful baroque flower gardens, parks, and landscapes of Europe – which have all been shaped by the lives of those who designed or commissioned them.This is a journey of aesthetic delight, a probing exploration of profoundly fascinating landscapes, and a celebration of the inextinguishable optimism of the human spirit.