Published in September 2015, Paradise Gardens is Toby's latest book.  Plants and gardens have always been a cornerstone of all major world religions and belief systems. The Fields of Reeds in Ancient Egypt, Eden in Christianity, the Isles of the Immortals in China and the Pure Land in Buddhist Japan are just some of the divine gardens promised to the faithful or earthly paradises imbued with symbolism and ritual. And in all religions plants have their own religious meanings and associations, ceremonial or ritualistic purposes and uses. Taking a global perspective and with a chronology of over 5,000 years, Paradise Gardens examines, explores and interprets seventeen belief systems grouped into five themed sections. Each chapter features an especially significant earthly paradise and through this one garden will explore the wider religio-symbolic use of gardens and plants within the belief system and also within the wider contexts of garden history and the prevailing zeitgeist.

Please click here for a review of Paradise Gardens and here to visit the book's Amazon.co.uk page.

Signed copies are available upon request