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Jump to navigationJump to searchChristopher Lloyd: His Life at Great Dixter by Stephen Anderton (view source)
Revision as of 13:21, 20 February 2011
, 13:21, 20 February 2011no edit summary
Initially I wondered if I would warm to the book as the first half of the book is essentially about Great Dixter and Christo Lloyd under the influence of his mother, Daisy Lloyd, but it would be impossible to understand anything about Lloyd if you knew nothing of his mother. She brought him in to gardening and taught him the basics – and then manipulated his life along with those of his four brothers and one sister until her death in 1972. Lloyd undoubtedly had a great influence on the garden at Dixter – but it was perhaps his great good fortune that his father bought the property in 1910 - and then hired Edward Lutyens to renovate and extend the gardens.
Anderton was a friend of Lloyd's but he is dispassionate about his failings and not inclined to overplay his strengths. In consequence the book is a easy and enlightening read. He's clear when what he's saying is based on information in the archive or comes direct from friends (such as Lloyds feelings about his 'departure ' from '' Country Life'' and equally open when he's speculating, for instance about Lloyd's relationship with other men.
The biography is affectionate but certainly not sycophantic and it brings to life the shy genius who contributed so much to twentieth century gardening. I knew how it all ended – but it was still a difficult book to put down.
