His wife, Julia Trevelyan Oman illustrated the book. She is gone now, but their garden remains. Strong was not to the manor born, but earned a manor, and its garden. A recent Telegraph article talks of his life:
'Sir Roy and his wife Julia purchased The Laskett, an early Victorian house midway between Hereford and Ross-on-Wye, in 1973. The grounds, constructed on a four acre field, contain a rose garden, an orchard, fountains, and an array of herbaceous borders. The garden design was inspired by the "great gardens of the pre-1914 era, by Italian gardens like the Villa Lante and by those of Tudor and Stuart England”.'
And his routine of writing and work is extant, at least the last I read of it.
'Mornings I rise at about 6.30, when my Maine Coon cat, Perkins, will be squeaking around the bed, telling me to get up. Breakfast is absolutely unchangeable – one spoonful of organic muesli with no sugar, low–fat natural yogurt, fruit purée made from plums gathered from my orchard and a cup of green tea. I eat breakfast in the conservatory, looking out on to the yew garden and cedar of Lebanon, but I'm always at my desk by 9am. I have three work rooms – the archive room, where I write personal correspondence and pay bills, the creative writing room, where I read and draft things, and the computer room. This house has 23 rooms and one thing I am not going to do in old age is shrink. Every room must be used.'
Something so utterly British is preserved by Sir Roy Strong. And we hope for a lot longer.
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