'A Veritable Eden'. The Manchester Botanic Garden: A History [Paperback]

The Manchester Botanical and Horticultural Society was founded in 1827 to allow members the opportunity to study botany and horticulture and to create an ambience "not unlike a fashionable resort". Today the Garden is all but forgotten and only the former entrance gates and a street name remain. This book, illustrated with many contemporary engravings and postcards, charts the history of the Garden; its international reputation in horticultural developments and many floral triumphs; its recurrent financial crises and ultimate degeneration into a venue for dog shows and conversion to a doomed amusement park.

1. Manchester, 1822
2. Gardening in Manchester 1790–1887
3. A Botanic Garden for Manchester
4. The Membership ‘Individuals of the highest respectability’
5. Creating the Garden
6. The Glasshouses ‘Who loves a garden loves a greenhouse too.’
7. Staffing the Garden
8. ‘It is not a church, not a palazzo, not a chateau’ 1839–1854
9. ‘Art Triumphed over Nature’ 1857
10. ‘… The Darkness Before the Dawn’ 1858–1865
11. ‘The Genius Behind the Machine’ 1865–1887
12. ‘Our Poverty and not our Will Consented’ 1889–1894
13. Struggling On 1895–1907
14. Conclusion
Appendix 1. Occupational Analysis of the membership
Appendix 2. The Herbarium of the Manchester Botanical and Horticultural Society

"Excellently researched and clearly written by Ann Brooks, it is a story worth telling, and an important book for future generations who might wonder about that rather splendid entrance.'"
Bella D'Arcy
Gardens and People (March 2011)

"... a great reference for those interested in Manchester and its history or the development of Botanic Gardens more generally.'"
Carl Legge
thinkinGardens (16 May 2011)

"Heavily illustrated with maps, period photographs, as well as postcards, this is an excellent case study for examination by professionals and public leaders.'"
Marilyn K. Alaimo, garden writer and volunteer, Chicago Botanic Garden
Chicago Botanic Garden (2011)