This book is a stunning exploration of 21 of the world's most celebrated royal gardens, from the delightful Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew and the organic, sustainable Highgrove to the Castle of Mey in Scotland. In mainland Europe, you can journey from the formal splendour of Het Loo in the Netherlands and Versailles in France to the Baroque World Heritage Site of the Royal Palace of Caserta in Southern Italy. Further afield, lies the Taj Mahal, the Tokyo Imperial Palace and Peter the Great's Summer Palace and Gardens in St Petersburg. Each featured garden includes the history, plantings and evolution of the garden as well as portraits of key plants and information about the design and layout of each. Countries included are: England, Scotland, Austria, Bali, Belgium, China, Denmark, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Netherlands, Russia, Spain and Sweden. This inspiring global selection of royal gardens is a perfect gift for any gardening enthusiast or armchair traveller and takes the reader on a journey of architecturally significant houses and their gardens as well as providing inspirational planting ideas. Mark Lane, with his background in architecture publishing and landscape design, takes both a practical and an aesthetic approach to gardening. He has gained recognition as a first-class landscape designer and the UK's first garden designer in a wheelchair, and is a presenter on the award-winning TV series BBC Gardener's World. @marklanetv www.marklane.tv