Lost Waterfront: The Decline and Rebirth of Manhattan's Western Shore Book

My aunt lent me this book after we visited Heligan in the summer and although I loved the garden, I wasn't entirely sure a book about its restoration would interest me; happily I was wrong.

Right from the start the book reads like a novel as Tim Smit writes of the discovery piece by piece of this amazing place. He writes of the adversity they faced right from the start from local naysayers to reluctant trustees and the Cornish weather, yet gradually a collective imagination takes hold and a vision emerges-involving some truly backbreaking work. Starting with a few volunteers and friends, over the years the ranks have grown to include eminent experts in their field, students, plant collectors and myriads of garden enthusiasts. Heligan is very much a community garden and this is apparent in the book with as many stories of the humans involved both in the present and the past as the plants and structures that the restoration is built upon.

I got bogged down a little in the section on the Tremayne family with generation after generation called John and dates swimming before my eyes but this is made up for by chapters illustrating how plans for each area such as the Jungle and the vegetable garden, grew from ideas to reality.

I'm not sure how someone who hadn't seen the garden would find the book although there are some wonderful photos, but simply as a tale of history respected and renewed and a community coming together this would be an enjoyable read.