DO you read gardening books for pleasure or solely for instruction? Following in the footsteps of Vita Sackville West, who contributed a celebrated column to The Observer, Ursula Buchan writes quietly elegant pieces which, though sparse on practicalities, delight readers who take a broad interest in gardens. Among her strengths is a willingness to go against the grain. In this collection, drawn from her columns in The Daily Telegraph and The Spectator, she takes a timely swipe at “heritage apple snobbery”. Of an ancient apple in her Northamptonshire garden she declares: “Lord Burghley is a washout and only sentiment keeps it in the orchard.”