If I’m honest, I’m not sure I’d have chosen this book for myself, but I was given it so felt obliged to read it. I love this book, it takes you on an amazing journey through the natural year learning about all the creatures and plants that inhabit a garden and farmland through the course of one year.

A handful of full colour plates are included in small batches, including the very last one of that special one the book is dedicated to, succeeding in bringing a tear to the eye of many a reader, I think, as potentially will the closing chapter😢 coming just before the short but sweet ½ page of ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.This is not so much Monty the gardener and celebrity but more the naturalist and country man, in the manner of a latter day Jack Hargreaves. If in our own modest back yards we can help preserve and treasure our natural world then we will make the world a better place - not just for ourselves but for every living creature". Beautiful descriptions of all aspects of the natural world - landscapes, animals, birds, plants, insects, weather. Dedicated to ‘Nigel, 2008-2020’, it pensively follows with the opening lines of ‘Afterwards’, by Thomas Hardy. Wildlife is not something that we watch happening in remote and exotic parts of the world on our screens, but right here in our own back yards and the more that we encourage it and learn to live with it, the more rewarding it becomes.

cm, it is a narrower format than I was expecting but it is a handy size to curl up in an armchair with to read Monty's observations on all sorts of things, often quite similar to my own feelings, e. Evocative for me because I grew up in the Welsh Marches and really, really miss seeing the changes across the seasons. My Garden World is Monty Don's personal journey through the natural year, month by month, season by season, observed from the immediate world around him.this is a very timely and relevant celebration of the world immediately around us - at a time when we really need it. Monty has a lovely writing style that makes this book very enjoyable as well as a great learning tool for gardeners. Yet no other creature owns the sky more than the swift and they used to grace us with their supersonic, sleek version of the still ubiquitous swallows and martins. This book is an amazing naturalists account of all the many birds, plants, and mammals that are to be found at different times of the year and in all the many places, in and around farms, gardens, woodlands and environments both familiar, and unfamiliar. I struggled initially at the hard bare facts laid before me, virtually every creature mentioned is in dangerous decline, this I knew - but not how long we’ve known about it - from the 70’s and 80’s!

Best Christmas Releases* --While some gardeners appear bent on suppressing nature, Monty Don loves and works with it. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average.

he notices the little things that so many of us 'gardeners' and outdoor people notice and gives lots of interesting extra facts. If, in our own modest back yards, we can help preserve and treasure our natural world, then we will make this planet a better place ~ not just for ourselves but for every living creature. The details about the decline and increase of certain birds, bugs and four legged creatures kept me wondering what it was like in the US. Whether you live in the countryside or the town, Monty's observations and insights are relevant to each and every one of us. This book is personal, selective, and based on my own particular interests rather than trying to be a reference book of any kind.

I bought it with the hope that it would be about Monty Don's garden and about gardening and plants but it is actually more about animals and wildlife which was ok, but not what I had hoped to read about. Tales and insight into his childhood, gardening and daily life were interesting in the most part but I did find certain parts of the book like trawling through an encyclopedia and it did tend to drag at those points. There are also some lovely pictures of the garden and the farm as well as Nigel including the last one ever taken.A journey through the natural year , month by month, season by season, observed from the immediate world around him.