Bibliography - Great Dixter
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Dixter, Northiam. A Fifteenth Century Timber Manor House, by John E. Ray, published 1909 in Sussex Archæological Collections (vol. 52, article, pp.132-155) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 2137] & The Keep [LIB/500270] & S.A.S. library   View Online

Great Dixter, the residence of Mr Nathaniel Lloyd, by Country Life contributor(s), published 4 January 1913 in Country Life (article)

Historic Houses of Sussex - Great Dixter, Northiam, by Viscountess Wolseley, published 1929 in Sussex County Magazine (vol. III no. 1, article, pp.6-12) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 2307] & The Keep [LIB/500139]

The Year at Great Dixter, by Christopher Lloyd, published 30 April 1987 (192 pp., London: Viking, ISBN-10: 0670809829 & ISBN-13: 9780670809820) accessible at: West Sussex Libraries & East Sussex Libraries

Provides a month-by-month description of the author's garden, a British landmark, discusses its design by Edwin Lutyens, and looks at featured species of flowers.

Clematis, by Christopher Lloyd, published 1989 (xi + 216 pp. - originall published in Country Life in 1965, London: Viking, ISBN-13: 9780670802333) accessible at: East Sussex Libraries

Christopher Lloyd's clematis nursery at Great Dixter is justly famous. Here in a new edition of the book first published a decade ago he describes his experience.

In My Garden, by Christopher Lloyd, published 1993 (viii + 277 pp, London: Bloomsbury, ISBN-13: 9780747516590) accessible at: East Sussex Libraries

The author has been writing a weekly column in "Country Life" since 1963, and until now, all this wealth of garden literature has been denied to a wider public. This book is a selection of the author's prose, and demonstrates to what high a degree he has influenced gardening in our times.

Guide to Great Dixter, by Christopher Lloyd and Charles Hind, published 1 March 1995 (18 pp., Angel Design, ISBN-10: 0952547104 & ISBN-13: 9780952547105)

Great Dixter, Sussex, by Charles Hind, published 2 November 1995 in Country Life (vol. 189 no. 44, article, pp.50-55)

The Cottage Garden, by Christopher Lloyd and Richard Bird, published 1999 (192 pp., London: Dorling Kindersley, ISBN-13: 9780751307023) accessible at: East Sussex Libraries

This practical guide provides both basic and more advanced information, including a clear explanation of the subject, equipment, and preparation. Detailed photographs and instructions work through all the techniques.

Meadows , by Christopher Lloyd, published 9 February 2006 (192 pp., Cassell, ISBN-10: 1844034321 & ISBN-13: 9781844034321) accessible at: East Sussex Libraries

At some point in their life, everyone has caught sight of a breathtaking meadow of grasses and wildflowers. The amazing community created by flowers and grasses, butterflies, grasshoppers and other fauna is rich and colourful. No wonder then, with the biodiversity of our countryside fast disappearing, that meadow gardening has become fashionable again. In this definitive guide, Christopher Lloyd covers all aspects of the topic - from the romantic concept of the Swiss Alpine meadow and the man-made prairies of the USA to Dutch and German approaches to naturalistic plantings and the wildflowers of South Africa. Full of practical information, Lloyd explores the development and management of established meadow areas, ways of starting from scratch in a garden setting and the hundreds of beautiful grasses, bulbs and colourful perennials that thrive in different conditions. Meadows is packed with all the information necessary for creating and maintaining your meadow.

Exotic planting for adventurous gardeners, by Christopher Lloyd, published 2007 (192 pp., London: BBC, ISBN-13: 9780563493198) accessible at: West Sussex Libraries & East Sussex Libraries

Exotic Planting for Adventurous Gardeners is about the most exciting plants grown by Christopher Lloyd in his garden at Great Dixter in East Sussex. The great plantsman tells the story of his Exotic Garden, which has delighted, & sometimes shocked, summer visitors since it replaced the Edwardian rose garden nearly 15 years ago.

Christopher Lloyd: His Life at Great Dixter, by Stephen Anderton, published 2010 (xiii + 240 pp., Random House, ISBN-10: 0701181133 & ISBN-13: 9780701181130) accessible at: West Sussex Libraries & East Sussex Libraries

Christopher Lloyd (Christo) was one of the greatest English gardeners of the twentieth century, perhaps the finest plantsman of them all. His creation is the garden at Great Dixter in East Sussex, and it is a tribute to his vision and achievement that, after his death in 2006, the Heritage Lottery Fund made a grant of £4 million to help preserve it for the nation. This enjoyable and revealing book - the first biography of Christo - is also the story of Dixter from 1910 to 2006, a unique unbroken history of one English house and one English garden spanning a century. It was Christo's father, Nathaniel, who bought the medieval manor at Dixter and called in the fashionable Edwardian architect, Lutyens, to rebuild the house and lay out the garden. And it was his mother, Daisy, who made the first wild garden in the meadows there. Christo was born at Dixter in 1921. Apart from boarding school, war service and a period at horticultural college, he spent his whole life there, constantly re-planting and enriching the garden, while turning out landmark books and exhaustive journalism. Opinionated, argumentative and gloriously eccentric, he changed the face of English gardening through his passions for meadow gardening, dazzling colours and thorough husbandry. As the baby of a family of six - five boys and a girl - Christo was stifled by his adoring mother. Music-loving and sports-hating, he knew the Latin names of plants before he was eight. This fascinating book reveals what made Christo tick by examining his relationships with his generous but scheming mother, his like-minded friends (such as gardeners Anna Pavord and Beth Chatto) and his colleagues (including his head gardener, Fergus Garrett, a plantsman in Christo's own mould).

In My Garden: The Garden Diaries of Great Dixter, by Christopher Lloyd, published 16 August 2010 (288 pp., Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, ISBN-10: 1408811081 & ISBN-13: 9781408811085) accessible at: West Sussex Libraries & East Sussex Libraries

Christopher Lloyd has been writing a weekly column in "Country Life" since 1963 and, until now, this wealth of garden literature has been denied to a wider public. There are many garden writers, but few whose work can be considered to have the status of literature. There is only one who has achieved this at the same time as delivering horticultural information which enlightens even the most erudite of plantsmen, and that is Christopher Lloyd. His prose is exciting; his knowledge is vast; his ideas are provocative, and what is the true test of a writer who has transcended his medium, he makes you laugh out loud. In this selection from the storehouse of Christopher Lloyd's prose it will be apparent to what a high degree he has influenced gardening in our times. The book will capture the essence of Christopher Lloyd and of his garden at Great Dixter.

The View from Great Dixter: Christopher Lloyd's Garden Legacy, by Christopher Lloyd's family and friends, published 31 October 2010 (207 pp., Timber Press, ISBN-10: 1604692154 & ISBN-13: 9781604692150)

Expansive herbaceous borders, orchid-filled meadows enveloped by old stone, precision-carved topiary, and an air of gentle eccentricity make Great Dixter the quintessential English country garden. Yet the impact of Christopher Lloyd's unique creation extends way beyond the gardening world and affects all who pass through it in a very particular way.
In this intimate collection of written and photographic contributions, Christopher Lloyd's wide circle of family and friends describe what Great Dixter means to them. Food, poetry, music and plants feature large with one guest recounting the delight of eating an exquisitely cooked turbot and another how a bloom of magnolia was analysed with botanical precision during the course of dinner. Visitors remember the feel of the centuries-old floorboards underfoot, the thrill of waking early to peer out on topiary enshrouded in fog, and many describe how, in one way or another, Great Dixter changed their lives.
This valuable record encapsulates what makes time spent at Great Dixter in particular, and to some extent time spent in all gardens, so irreplaceable. It adds an important layer to our understanding of Christopher Lloyd's achievements and spurs us on to new heights in our own gardening endeavours.

Dear Christo: Memories of Christopher Lloyd at Great Dixter, edited by Rosemary Alexander and Fergus Garrett, published 15 October 2010 (160 pp., London: Timber Press, ISBN-10: 1604692235 & ISBN-13: 9781604692235) accessible at: West Sussex Libraries & East Sussex Libraries

Great Dixter is a place of pilgrimage for gardeners all over the world. Its exuberant plantings have drawn legions of green-fingered visitors for decades. But Great Dixter's influence extends way beyond the gardening world and affects all who pass through it in a very particular way. Well-known garden writers and celebrities such as Alan Titchmarsh, Anna Pavord, Helen Dillon, Hugh Johnson, Simon Jenkins and Mary Keen remark upon their Dixter experiences. Photographers and designers such as Howard Sooley, Jonathan Buckley, Andrew Lawson, Jerry Harpur and Allen Pollok-Morris have also contributed a range of stunning photographs.

Return to Dixter: Great Dixter, Northiam, East Sussex, by Tom Coward, published 10 July 2013 in Country Life (vol. 207 no. 28, article, pp.58-63)

Guide to Great Dixter, by Charles Hind, published 2015 (57 pp., Northiam) accessible at: R.I.B.A. Library

The Great Dixter Journal, published 2016 (Northiam: Great Dixter Charitable Trust, ISSN: 2398-2667) accessible at: British Library

This is the first issue of The Great Dixter Journal and is offered very much as an experiment. It has become increasingly apparent that the Friends' Newsletter, with its necessarily brief format, is not able to deal fully with some of the more in-depth and valuable material being offered. So it makes sense to develop a dedicated publication for that, perhaps on an annual basis. With 2016 being the tenth anniversary of Christopher Lloyd's death, there was an obvious additional stimulus to turn the Journal from an aspiration into reality. A good proportion of the articles here, therefore, have taken the opportunity to provide personal perspectives on Great Dixter over the last decade and beyond. Roy Brigden, Editor
Includes:

• Preface by Fergus Garrett
• The House at Great Dixter - Changes in Time by Olivier Eller
• Great Dixter Ten Years On by Anna Pavord
• Going Round the Garden by Frank Ronan

The Finest Gardens of the South East, by Tony Russell, published 15 March 2016 (160 pp., Stroud: Amberley Publishing, ISBN-10: 1445649780 & ISBN-13: 9781445649788) accessible at: West Sussex Libraries

Home of the most stunning public gardens in England, South East England's wealth of internationally renowned gardens are a must see, and here Tony Russell provides a guide to the wonderful gardens the region has to offer. In East Sussex, Sheffield Park Garden offers colourful, vibrant displays with waterfalls, cascades and four large lakes, while Kent offers thirteenth-century Hever Castle, complete with Italian scupltures, a 35-acre lake and a 3,000 strong rose garden. The wealth of gardens extends to The Savill Garden in Berkshire, University of Oxford Botanic Garden in Oxfordshire, Sissinghurst Castle Garden in Kent, Great Dixter House & Garden in East Sussex and Goodnestone Park & Garden in Kent, all brought to life in this wonderful collection compiled by Tony Russell.

Meadows: At Great Dixter and Beyond , by Christopher Lloyd and Fergus Garrett, published 7 April 2016 (240 pp., The Pimpernel Press, ISBN-10: 1910258032 & ISBN-13: 9781910258033) accessible at: West Sussex Libraries

To see a meadow in bloom is a great delight it s alive and teeming with life, mysterious, dynamic . . So Christopher Lloyd began his much-admired instructive and celebratory account of meadows, first published in 2004. Few people knew more about meadow gardening than Lloyd, who spent much of his long life developing the flowering tapestries in his garden at Great Dixter, creating scenes of great beauty and a place of pilgrimage for lovers of wildflowers and wildlife. In Meadows he imparted that lifetime s learning, exploring the development and management of meadow areas, explaining how to establish a meadow in a garden setting, describing the hundreds of beautiful grasses, bulbs and perennials and annuals that thrive in different meadow conditions and detailing how to grow them. Lloyd's classic text remains at the heart of this new book, which also includes as well as much stunning new photography an extensive introduction by Fergus Garrett, Lloyd's head gardener.