The photography in this book is absolutely stunning! There are so many large, detailed, beautifully composed photographs that one could linger over this for hours. Each series of photos is accompanied by brief but interesting facts about the history and significance of the featured garden.

For being labeled as "Gardens of the World", over half of the content was gardens of Europe, with the entire rest of the world condensed into the remainder (the continent of South America had exactly 3 entries). Still, what was featured was gorgeous. This would make a great gift for gardeners, horticulture buffs, and armchair travelers!

Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review!

Book: Amazing Gardens of the World: Spectacular Classic & Contemporary Gardens
Author: Vivienne Hambly
Pub Info: 14 March 2022, Amber Books
Genres: Arts & Photography, Gardens, Travel, Leisure / Hobby, Nature

I received an electronic copy of this book on NetGalley in exchange for honest feedback. Thank you to the author, photographers, publisher, and NG.

This book is a collection of amazing gardens across the world. There are different types such as botanical gardens, country house gardens, inner-city gardens, medicinal gardens, knot gardens, etc. This book shows the places and also the people who designed them, including famous people like Prince Charles, Edith Wharton, and Agatha Christie. There are over 200 color photographs included in this packed book full of content.

I am approaching this book as someone who really like gardens, but I only have read about English and US types of gardens. I am inclined to be interested in English gardens the most. Either way, I am hoping to 1) learn more about diverse gardens across different areas I’m not familiar with and 2) learn about how famous people / gardeners designed their gardens.

Right off the bat, I see that the book’s contents are separated into continent categories: Europe, Africa & the Middle East, Asia, Australia & the Pacific, North and South America. Note for Editor: there is a mistype on the TOC where it says Europe twice instead of including Asia. The bulk content of this book is high quality color photographs. There are short captions next to images which tell about where the gardens are and brief facts. They give pertinent information.

So, by going through different continents, you can see different types of gardens and the flora native to the location and how those different areas influence designs. I was entertained by this book’s beautiful pictures. Ultimately, I’d think that this would be a great “coffee table” type of book which leans substantially on its photographic content.

I received a copy of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This is a nice coffee table book.

I'm not sure if it's because I got a digital copy of the book, but I wasn't particularly wowed by some of the photos. This book showcases different gardens around the world, organized by continent. There are some very famous gardens and some that are less well-known.

Overall a nice book to flip through.

Visit famously beautiful gardens from the comfort of your armchair. Perfect for a rainy day when you're feeling a bit in the dumps.

I have been very lucky to travel to so many beautiful places, many of which have had incredible gardens. I loved seeing many of the places I’ve been featured in this book and there a few places that I desperately need to go back to so I can see them in the correct season to fully appreciate the gardens. This book is a wonderful coffee table guide to some of the most amazing gardens in the world. It goes continent by continent featuring both estate gardens and more formal botanical gardens. The large full-color photographs are truly spectacular and really really really make me want to travel. I will note that the book is very Euro-centric with almost have the gardens being in Europe, but as it is coming from a European publisher, I would expect this. The pictures are accompanied with a brief explanation providing the name and location of each garden and a description of the history of the garden, how it was designed, or what makes it special. This book is absolutely beautiful and anyone would love flipping through the pages even if they aren’t that interested in gardening. I highly recommend it.
Thank you to Amber Books and NetGalley for the ARC.

Bookstagram post will be posted in the coming weeks.

Another stunning book by Amber Books. I love being transported from a dull, grey January day to beautiful sunny gardens from all over the world. Some I am familiar with and have been lucky enough to visit, but many others are included here that I was not aware of and will be adding to my bucket list. Beautiful photographs of a wide range of style of garden inspire you to get out there and transform your own small patch, or plan a trip somewhere nearby or far away. The gardens are divided up by continent so there is plenty of scope to plan an adventure. Another beautiful book that would make a wonderful gift for a keen gardener or someone who just wants to escape for a while. My thanks to Amber Books and Netgalley for allowing me access to this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Disclaimer: ARC via Netgalley

This gorgeous coffee table books provides a look at various gardens worldwide. And when Vivienne Hambly writes worldwide, she means it. While the book does start with various gardens in Europe, one of the highlights of the book is the section African gardens which includes gardens outside of South Africa as well as gardens that are not traditionally showcases of just green plant life. Hambly even includes Meidan Emam in Iran.
It’s true that one could argue that both Canada and South America could be better represented. For instance, the Montreal Botanical Gardens understandably get highlighted but the gardens of Toronto’s Casa Loma are absolute (granted they are small, but the United States Botanic Gardens are included and those are small).
That aside, this is a wonderful book that entices the reader with wonderful gardens to visit.

Wow, this is one of the most beautiful books I've ever seen! Maybe part of it is the fact that I'm dying to travel the world and visit some lush gardens, but that doesn't take away from how great the photography and information is in this book. Anyone with a green thumb-or just an appreciation for those who do-will absolutely love flipping through this one. It can also serve as inspiration for an artist or traveler.

Amazing gardens! I love gardening and couldn’t wait to read this book. Great read, extremely well written!

Bristling with all the usual standards from England, skating through Versailles, Sans-Souci, Peterhof et al in Europe, and then having to be as fair as possible when it comes to Africa, this is just what you'd expect – a highly pictorial skim round the world's formal parks, gardens of the landed estates and of botanical collections, and so on. To its credit it gives you things like Zagreb's botanical gardens; to its detriment it could have been cobbled together out of any pairings of image and caption, with unearthly water lily blossoms in Kew clearly made of glass and metal not mentioned in the text once. That said, even when they leave out the essential, the words are fine and the visuals are a warm, sunny treat (except Iran, where it's snowed) and are well worth some perusal for lovers of horticulture.

Beautiful photographs are the highlights of Amazing Gardens fo the World. The European section was my favorite as it covered many places I've visited. Castles, palaces and great homes are always on my travel list and many have gardens included in this book such as Frederiksborg Castle, Blenheim Palace, Versailles, Chateau de Vilandry, Tivoli, Peterhof Palace and the Alhambra. Smaller homes are included with the gardens of Beatrice Potter and Monet's lovely Giverny. I thought it was interesting that in the USA the gardens aren't tied in to large estates but are usually botanical gardens. Africa, Australia and the Pacific are included as well. I don't think I even thought about gardens in Iraq or on islands. This is for garden lovers and couch travelers who enjoy beautiful places. Thank you to NetGalley and Amber Books for a temporary eARC in exchange for an honest review.

A beautiful, coffee-table book focused on gardens throughout the world - if you like looking at pictures of gorgeous gardens, then you will find nothing to complain about with this book. It delivers exactly what it promises: amazing gardens of the world. Makes me want to travel. But since I can't afford to travel, I look at books like this and dream instead.

I loved this book so much. I love gardens and I love photography so it was nice to flip through and see where the gardens are (I may have jotted down some of the places so I could potentially go see some in my life). I would say this would be a nice 'coffee table' book so people can look through it whenever and I like the idea of looking through it when it is a bad weather day.

I grew up traveling and loved whenever we would get to see the botanical gardens or palace gardens somewhere. Many of my favorites are captured in this stunning collection of beautiful gardens. I enjoyed being able to travel again, by proxy, to so many beautiful gardens. I do love how it is broken out by continents, making it easier to find specific locations. Each photo provides a short description of location, history, and other informative tidbits. An enjoyable collection that I would recommend to anyone who takes pleasure in a variety of beautiful gardens.

I received a complimentary copy from the publisher via NetGalley and all opinions expressed are solely my own, freely given.

Absolutely brilliant! I love gardens, books about gardens, wandering through gardens, talking about gardens, digging in the dirt...and I'm always giddy when I discover a new garden book. Especially this one. I was expecting to see many old favorites like the Alhambra, Versailles, Giverney, Villa d'Este, Kew Gardens and Great Dixter... but there was so much more! I was thrilled to see the lesser known, enigmatic Quinta da Regaleira in tiny Sintra Portugal. And Cornwall's informational Eden Project and spectacular Lost Gardens of Heligan, with its haunting backstory. And of course, who wouldn't want to visit Jardin Majorelle in Marrakech, with its tropical foliage and giant cacti set against a gem-toned backdrop. This book is written like a bucket list for any garden lover in your life. How I would love to see a volume II !

“Amazing Gardens of the World” delivers exactly what it promises - a collection of stunning photographs of gardens on every continent. I really enjoyed the captions to each photo which give context and a lot of new and interesting information. I particularly enjoyed learning about how the gardens are influenced by the cultures in which they are placed - for example how important having water features are in Asian gardens. This book sparked my wanderlust whilst simultaneously made me feel like I was in each of those beautiful settings. Perfect for any keen gardener, anyone who loves to travel or who needs escape everyday life and focus on something beautiful. So glad I got a chance to read it.

Thank you to Vivienne Hambly, Amber books ltd and Netgalley for an opportunity to review an advanced copy of the book in exchange for an honest opinion.

Just wow!
Mind-blowing pictures of vistas but also of atmospheric close-ups of gardens from all over the world make this a plant-lovers drool fest! There is just enough text to give you the necessary info but thankfully no droning on about horticulture in general.
A true stunner of a book.

Pros: From the cover, I expected this book to be filled with gorgeous photography, and the beauty of the gardens featured in this book is beyond what I imagined. This book is a fantastic mental getaway for when I can't physically travel due to the pandemic. It was fun to see places I've already visited but even more fun to add to my list of places I want to visit. My favorite thing about this book is that it is geographically diverse and not Eurocentric--I especially loved seeing the gardens in Asia.

Cons: Most of the gardens featured in the Europe section of this book were from England, and I would have loved to see more countries featured.

Thank you to NetGalley and Amber Books for the opportunity to read this book!