Derek Jarman, Il giardino di Derek Jarman, 2019

“Paradise is the obsession of gardens,” writes Derek Jarman, “and mine is obsessed with it, too.” While Jarman’s public image is that of a brilliant filmmaker whose work, often centered on themes such as sexuality and violence, never ceases to generate controversy, in his private life the artist was instead the architect of a garden-paradise. He created it in an environmental context that many would probably judge more hellish than heavenly: an arid, flat, often desolate expanse of pebbles, with the Dungeness nuclear power station in Kent as its horizon. Yet Jarman, a gardening enthusiast since childhood, managed to combine the painter’s eye, botanical expertise, and ecological principles in the creation of a landscape that coexists with flints, shells, and driftwood found on the beach at Dungeness, sculptures composed of stones, old tools, and found objects, as well as native plants, shrubs, and flowers introduced by Jarman himself. This book charts its development from its inception in 1986 to the director’s final year. This testimony is accompanied by over 150 photographs taken since 1991 by photographer friend Howard Sooley, which portray the garden in all its phases and through the different seasons. The angles from which they are taken reveal its complex geometric plan, its magical stone circles, and its fascinating and bizarre sculptures. But they also capture glimpses of Jarman’s daily life in Dungeness, as he strolled, weeded, watered, or simply enjoyed life. Derek Jarman’s Garden is the author’s last book. This diary, just like the garden it describes, is the most fitting memorial to remember a beloved artist of immense talent who, against all odds, in the most inhospitable of places, created a work of incredible beauty. It will appeal to anyone who loves gardening and the many legions of admirers of this extraordinary man.