GRAHAM PAYNE trained in horticulture at Cambridge University Botanic Garden. He became Head Gardener of Downing College, Cambridge at the age of 22, before moving to Jesus College, where he oversaw some 27 acres of intensely managed gardens and sports grounds with a staff of seven.

A particular appeal of the book is that alongside the well-known stapes of mediterranean gardens it lists many plants which even experienced and knowledgeable gardeners are unlikely to have come across. This makes browsing rather fun…Besides trees, shrubs, climbers, perennials, annuals and bulbs, [the author] tempts us with luscious bromeliads, cactuses, grasses, palms, proteas, sub-shrubs, succulents and even epiphytes. There is a real wealth of new ideas here, for most of us.