Behind the Privet Hedge: Richard Sudell, the Suburban Garden and the Beautification of Britain Hardcover – July 8, 2024

One of the Books of the Year 2025 at New StatesmanThe 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 colorful 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 evangelizing for gardens as the vanguard of a more egalitarian society. Read more