Ursula Buchan – författare

A glorious photographic record of the postwar English gardening scene by one of the people at its epicentre. Roald Dahl and his family in their garden at Great Missenden; Nancy Lancaster, society hostess and interior designer, sporting an elegant straw sombrero and snipping delicately at her roses; Vita Sackville-West at Sissinghurst – these and many other dedicated gardeners are captured here by the discerning eye of Valerie Finnis. With a spectacular cast of characters at home in their gardens, weeding, inspecting, watering and standing proudly by their plants, wearing the clothes and fashions of the day, and epitomizing life and society in the second half of the 20th century, this book will be devoured by anyone with a love of British gardens or horticulture in general.

John Buchan’s name is known across the world for The Thirty-Nine Steps. In the past one hundred years the classic thriller has never been out of print and has inspired numerous adaptations for film, television, radio and stage, beginning with the celebrated version by Alfred Hitchcock. Yet there was vastly more to ‘JB’. He wrote more than a hundred books – fiction and non-fiction – and a thousand articles for newspapers and magazines. He was a scholar, antiquarian, barrister, colonial administrator, journal editor, literary critic, publisher, war correspondent, director of wartime propaganda, member of parliament and imperial proconsul – given a state funeral when he died, a deeply admired and loved Governor-General of Canada.His teenage years in Glasgow’s Gorbals, where his father was the Free Church minister, contributed to his ease with shepherds and ambassadors, fur-trappers and prime ministers. His improbable marriage to a member of the aristocratic Grosvenor family means that this account of his life contains, at its heart, an enduring love story.Ursula Buchan, his granddaughter, has drawn on recently discovered family documents to write this comprehensive and illuminating biography. With perception, style, wit and a penetratingly clear eye, she brings vividly to life this remarkable man and his times.