Seemed as much fiction as non-fiction. I wish there had been some photos included to enhance the narrative.
2.5 stars ( )

Queen Elizabeth seems to have had a lifelong love of gardens, and creating incredible gardens for her to enjoy on her long progresses through the country became good strategy for her courtiers. This book is primarily about two: Robert Dudley's grounds at Kenilworth Castle, and William Cecil's Theobalds Palace. Dudley was flashy and romantic, and initially his younger, more cosmopolitan style won the day. But Cecil got the best gardener in all of England, a man capable of growing exotics including tobacco, potatoes, pinks and sunflowers, and Elizabeth fell in love with Theobalds as well. The longer Elizabeth stayed, the more in favor the courtier probably was, and the more grants etc. they could get out of her. The lengths they went to for her entertainment were extreme. Dudley's fireworks were so outrageous that on one occasion they nearly killed his villagers. Another time, the Earl of Hartford was given little advance warning of Elizabeth's arrival. So, unable to get his gardens up to scratch in time, he instead dug a huge crescent shaped lake in his grounds and staged a recreation of the defeat of the Spanish Armada.

These incredible pleasure gardens, which bankrupted some to create, are long gone. In fact, there are no Elizabethan gardens left in England, only ruins and reconstructions. Martyn had trouble finding details of the actual gardens at Kenilworth and Theobalds, although she provides all she found. The descriptions of the gardens and gardeners' tricks are lovely. Less lovely are Martyn uneven accounts of history, and periodic attempts to drum up interest by writing about historical figures in the present tense, as though she knows their hidden thoughts and feelings. Unnecessary! ( )

Trea Martyn taught Garden History at the University of London and this, her first book, is a fascinating and discursive description of Queen Elizabeth and her relationships with Lord Robert Dudley and Sir William Cecil, as manifested in their gardens.

The extravagant Dudley used the grounds of Kenilworth Castle to create an up-to-date wonderland that was designed to glorify himself and persuade the Virgin Queen to marry him. Cecil responded by making for Elizabeth a safe, serene and spectacular garden – in her honour – at Theobalds palace.

Garden lore, gossip, history, art, intrigue, revels, landscaping and horticulture, this book is as fragrant as a damask rose, and as delightful as a spring garden. ( )

Review by Stuart Mayne.
Expressions of love come in many different ways. Physiologically, a person's breathing increases, the cheeks become flushed and the genitals…well we all know what happens with them. Socially, we ignore our friends or ask them stupid questions. We fawn, simper and giggle. But do we build elaborate gardens, clipping bushes into elaborate patterns? Do we set off fireworks of such violence that villages burn down? Well, you may do if you were wooing a queen. Especially one of such majesty and grandeur as Elizabeth I of England. In Elizabeth in the Garden, Trea Martyn (Faber and Faber (A&U Australia) 978-0-571-21693-2) explores with delightful language the exploits of the Lords Dudley and Cecil in their attempts to entice, delight and enliven their relationship with the woman they both loved with devotion.
This book is interesting in itself, but what drew me to it was its description of a significantly different means of making and showing love to a member of the opposite sex. SF is all about speculating different worlds and societies. To successfully speculate it helps to read about different societal mores. This well written book will inspire you to think, and write, outside the square, leading you into delightful mazes that will breath fresh air into your stories.