Norah Lindsay

The Book

In the years between the wars Norah Bourke Lindsay (1873-1948) was a major influence on the course of garden design and planting. She developed her skills in her own magical garden at the Manor House, Sutton Courtenay in Oxfordshire, widely regarded as the most beautiful garden in England. Then, in 1924, facing financial ruin after the collapse of her marriage, she embarked upon a career as a garden designer. Her commissions ranged from the gardens of quiet English manor houses to the grand estates of the country house set, to royal gardens in France, Germany, Italy and Yugoslavia.

She designed gardens for Nancy Astor at Cliveden in Buckinghamshire, the Prince of Wales at Fort Belvedere in Windsor Great Park, the Horners at Mells in Somerset, Nancy Lancaster at both Kelmarsh in Northamptonshire and Ditchley in Oxfordshire, Consuelo Vanderbilt Balsan in France, Prince Paul of Yugoslavia at Bled, Princess Aspasia at the Palazzo Contanini Accademia in Venice, and Prince Otto von Bismarck at Friedrichsruh in Germany. She worked with her friend Lawrence Johnston to create the great garden at Hidcote in Gloucestershire. She successfully and deftly gardened in different soils and varied climates across all of England and throughout Europe.

The Author

Allyson is an internationally acclaimed garden historian, lecturer, and author who writes and lectures extensively on topics related to gardens and their history. She is a graduate of the Radcliffe Seminars Graduate Program in Landscape History at Radcliffe College, and for several years served as Chairman of the New England Garden History Society. In 2003 she was awarded a Gold Medal by the Massachusetts Horticultural Society for her work in promoting New England’s garden history.