In a volume of impressive detail and opulent photography the British landscape architect and art historian Penelope Hill has portrayed the developments in contemporary European garden art. Presenting hundreds of gardens -- some well-known, others unknown -- from the whole of Europe, she succeeds in demonstrating the rich inventiveness, the originality, and the provocative force of a form of art which has attracted renewed interest in recent years. Hill shows how in the field of garden design, the use of new materials, the influence of ecology and art as well as town planning have brought about a break with tradition, and how new goals are emerging.