Greenspiration: head to the Garden Museum Literary Festival 2018 for talks from garden writing legends

The beautifully renovated Garden Museum in Lambeth will host green-fingered talks in an urban oasis from July 7 to 8, with Standard readers bagging 20 per cent off tickets.
Garden designers Dan Pearson and Tania Compton in discussion at last year's festival
Alex Mitchell3 July 2018

If you’re a fan of London’s green spaces, the Garden Museum on Lambeth Palace Road, SE1, is the place to be from 7-8 July, when The Garden Museum Literary Festival is back in town.

The festival that puts the culture into horticulture is five years old, and for the first time, this year it’s at home in London to celebrate the reopening of the beautifully renovated Garden Museum next to Lambeth Palace.

The world’s only festival dedicated to writing inspired by gardens, it’s a small, friendly event that always crams in top writing talent and intriguing, mind-expanding talks.

Evening Standard readers will receive a 20 per cent discount on tickets (see below for info), so what are you waiting for?

Over the weekend, a great line-up of writers will be exploring what makes London’s green spaces unique.

BEST OF THE BUNCH

Highlights include a chance to hear garden writing legend Mary Keen discussing her influences, from cow parsley to Beth Chatto, food writer Bee Wilson on ‘supertasters’ and journalist and author Allan Jenkins on the varied joys of dawn.

Meanwhile, Tim Richardson and Anthony Noel discuss the ‘funniest garden book ever written’, Down the Garden Path by Beverley Nichols.

Dan Pearson and Tania Compton on stage at a previous year's event
Edwina Sassoon

Subjects as diverse as how gardening can help with grief (Charlie Hart and Kate Bradbury), Epping Forest’s madmen and savants (author Will Ashon) and London’s floral shrines (Ken Worpole) promise to intrigue.

Elsewhere, Alice Vincent and Claire Ratinon discuss why a new green-fingered generation are seeking meaning in growing plants. Look out also for ruminations on seasonality in the city (Lia Leendertz and Mark Diacono) and London’s Georgian gardens (Todd Longstaffe-Gowan), while Iain Sinclair ponders motorway fringes and metropolitan prophets.

When you’re not taking notes and admiring the beautiful Garden Museum building, head to the new Garden Café for great food from chefs Harry Kaufman and George Ryle or have a wander round the redesigned courtyard garden, with atmospheric, naturalistic planting by Dan Pearson.

Christopher Woodward, director of the Garden Museum promises a fun, thought-provoking couple of days.

Redesign: Dan Pearson has filled the new courtyard with naturalistic planting

"The joy of this festival is that it’s small, friendly, and fresh. You won’t be queueing at the back of a big tent to hear a speaker trotting out their on-tour talk. Just green voices and green thoughts in an urban oasis."

GET 20 PER CENT OFF TICKETS WITH OUR CODE

Tickets can be booked online. Weekend tickets cost £110, or £60 for under 30s. Saturday or Sunday single day tickets, cost £60, or £30 for under 30s.

Enter the code ‘Standard’ at the checkout to receive a 20 per cent discount on these prices.

The Garden Museum is found next to Lambeth Palace on Lambeth Palace Road, London, SE1. It is a 10-minute walk from Victoria, Waterloo and Vauxhall stations.

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