This delightful, fact-packed book is so compelling it had me craving a pair of telescopic topiary loppers even though I don't own a hedge ... Let's hear it for hedges! * Daily Mail * [ A] quirky, readable book ... On many of its pages Hedge Britannia illuminates a small field of human endeavour that few of us will have ever considered * Sunday Times * Whether your preference is for hornbeam, viburnum or plain old privet, you'll find much to marvel over here. Shear delight * Voyager * One fruit in an orchard of idiosyncratic writing * Boyd Tonkin, Independent * As Hugh Barker observes in his engaging saunter around the subject of hedges and our relationship with them, we are caught up in a struggle with nature, which constantly seeks to return the garden to a state of chaos ... Deploying a nice, easy style, he has woven a good deal of interesting and important information into a pleasantly discursive narrative that is much enhanced by the wealth of hedge pictures * Literary Review * Genuinely eccentric but lively and informative, Baker moves through the past and present of the great British hedge and comes out looking spruce. He trims his material - from the history of land enclosures to modern suburban lifestyles - into a satisfying shape that even garden-haters can admire * Independent * This book offers a history of the nation seen in the context of the story of the humble hedge. Well written, informative * English Garden *
