Godwit, 2001. Signed by the author. Previous owner's name inside.

When her miniscule but perfect city courtyard garden transformed itself into an estuarine mudflat (minus wading birds) in the rain, landscape architect Philippa Swan knew it was time for a change. She couldn't exactly visualise her new garden but she knew that she wanted it to be a shortcut out of the city, a 'somewhere-else garden'. Life (and Death) in a Small City Garden tells of the disasters and triumphs of making a real garden into an area the size of a single-car garage. Along with tips for using hairdryers and sticky tape in the garden, and turning wine into water, it offers a Mars and Venus explanation for why men like hairy fantasies and growing really big pumpkins, and insights into why courtyard gardens live fast and die young. This hilarious, candid account of contempory urban gardening will strike a chord with all gardeners, particularly those beseiged by too many grand ideas and not enough cynicism....