Behind the Privet Hedge

The surprising origin story of Britain’s love affair with suburban gardening.

It is said that Britain is a nation of gardeners and its suburban gardens with roses and privet hedges are widely admired and copied across the world. But how and why did millions across the United Kingdom develop an obsession with colourful plots of land to begin with? Behind the Privet Hedge seeks to answer this question and reveals how, despite their stereotype as symbols of dull middle-class conformity, these open spaces were once seen as a tool to bring about social change in the early twentieth century. The book restores to the story a remarkable but long-forgotten figure, Richard Sudell, who spent a lifetime evangelising for gardens as the vanguard of a more egalitarian society.

'Gilson's book is a charming and unexpected glimpse into how gardening took root as an obsession for millions, full of suburban heroes and villains, revolutions and conformity.' – John Grindrod, author of Iconicon: A Journey around the Landmark Buildings of Contemporary Britain