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Sissinghurst
Feb. 27th, 2023 09:02 pmBook Review: Vita Sackville-West's Sissinghurst - The Creation of a Garden, by Vita Sackville-West and Sarah Raven
Unusually, this was a surprise Christmas present, after our trip last year to Sussex which included a short hop over the border into Kent to visit Sissinghurst. I'll admit my initial thought was that a far more entertaining book would have been written by Jan Ravens, but this was a little unfair. It turns out that Sarah Raven is married to one of Sackville-West's grandsons, and the family still lives at Sissinghurst (which explains why very little of the buildings were open to the public), so there is good provenance.
In terms of subject matter, the book divides into two parts: history and gardening. Raven writes about the history of Sissinghurst, a Tudor manor house which acquired the designation of Castle after a period housing French prisoners of war. Fire destroyed much of the building in the eighteenth century, and although the site provided good agricultural returns the house was neglected. Vita Sackville-West grew up nearby and after her marriage to Harold Nicolson, in the late 1920s and early 1930s they searched for an appropriate property. Apparently the nearby Bodiam Castle was under consideration for a time, but they decided it was too impractical. Sissinghurst was sold to them as a "farm with ruins".
Probably the larger half of the book covers Vita's approach to various aspects of the garden, from her planting style of "cram, cram, cram" to the various monochrome schemes in different sections of the garden (the white garden, the purple border, and the sunset colours of the cottage garden). Generally the approach is for Raven to provide some context on a particular matter and then quote at length from Vita's writings, either from books or her Observer columns over the years. This doesn't feel quite as intrinsically informative as the historical section, but it does give insight into Vita's opinionated writing, and provides a pivot point to consider plant availability, taste, and gardening styles and practices over nearly the past century.
The illustrations in the book are a mixed bag. The colour plate sections are excellent, and the historical drawings of the house are clear and interesting, but many of Vita and Harold's photos are a bit grainy, blurry or just dull; of course they are family photos and weren't taken especially with posterity in mind. I suppose they are of genuine historical interest but they don't stand up well against the better quality photographs.
There was some tension about handing over the gardens to the National Trust, though Vita became accepting of its inevitability; whilst some aspects and planting have been updated over time, many others remain in the authentic style of the place's famous occupants.
Unusually, this was a surprise Christmas present, after our trip last year to Sussex which included a short hop over the border into Kent to visit Sissinghurst. I'll admit my initial thought was that a far more entertaining book would have been written by Jan Ravens, but this was a little unfair. It turns out that Sarah Raven is married to one of Sackville-West's grandsons, and the family still lives at Sissinghurst (which explains why very little of the buildings were open to the public), so there is good provenance.
In terms of subject matter, the book divides into two parts: history and gardening. Raven writes about the history of Sissinghurst, a Tudor manor house which acquired the designation of Castle after a period housing French prisoners of war. Fire destroyed much of the building in the eighteenth century, and although the site provided good agricultural returns the house was neglected. Vita Sackville-West grew up nearby and after her marriage to Harold Nicolson, in the late 1920s and early 1930s they searched for an appropriate property. Apparently the nearby Bodiam Castle was under consideration for a time, but they decided it was too impractical. Sissinghurst was sold to them as a "farm with ruins".
Probably the larger half of the book covers Vita's approach to various aspects of the garden, from her planting style of "cram, cram, cram" to the various monochrome schemes in different sections of the garden (the white garden, the purple border, and the sunset colours of the cottage garden). Generally the approach is for Raven to provide some context on a particular matter and then quote at length from Vita's writings, either from books or her Observer columns over the years. This doesn't feel quite as intrinsically informative as the historical section, but it does give insight into Vita's opinionated writing, and provides a pivot point to consider plant availability, taste, and gardening styles and practices over nearly the past century.
The illustrations in the book are a mixed bag. The colour plate sections are excellent, and the historical drawings of the house are clear and interesting, but many of Vita and Harold's photos are a bit grainy, blurry or just dull; of course they are family photos and weren't taken especially with posterity in mind. I suppose they are of genuine historical interest but they don't stand up well against the better quality photographs.
There was some tension about handing over the gardens to the National Trust, though Vita became accepting of its inevitability; whilst some aspects and planting have been updated over time, many others remain in the authentic style of the place's famous occupants.
