In the UK, more than 27 million of us tend a window box, rooftop, or patch of earth – and find solace, sustenance and equilibrium. Jonathan Bate, one of our greatest literary critics and cultural historians, shares his major new history The Garden, which explores not only actual gardens, from palace estates to city allotments, but the meaning of gardens. Drawing on poetry, painting, philosophy and religion, from Ovid to Shakespeare, Jane Austen and Emily Dickinson, an event to console and inspire. Green fingers not required.  

In conversation with Todd Longstaffe-Gowan