A fascinating read. Brenda was an inspiration, and a link between the past and the future of gardening. - English Garden
Gibson has written the perfect book about Colvin, collecting information and illustrations that bring her life and work to life, and showing sensitivity and understanding towards her as a person. Publisher Frances Lincoln has scored another hit with a book that may change perceptions as subtly but surely as a belt of newly planted trees. - Country Life
Carefully researched and copiously illustrated, 'A Career in History' fills an important gap in landscape history and leaves one eager to learn more, surely the sign of a really successful biography. - BBC Gardens Illustrated
Beautifully produced, illustrated and professionally researched. Thank you to Trish Gibson and Jane Crawley for this excellent insight into a twentieth-century landscape giant. - Horticulturalist
The first full account of Colvin's life and work, and it is a large, meticulously researched and beautifully presented book, generously illustrated with plans and pictures of the work, as well as many of Colvin's own photographs. It's a book for anyone interested in the evolution of landscape design in the last century, but it also deserves to be more widely read in this design-led age, as a reminder of the principles behind what Colvin called landscapes 'worth living in'. - Hortus
Richly illustrated with Colvin's own plans and photos, supplemented with modern illustrations, Gibson's lively style and detailed notes make this biography as appealing to garden amateurs as to landscape scholars or professional designers. - Garden Design Journal
Recommended as an interesting biography, a history of garden and landscape design in the 20th century, a guide for garden visitors, and a useful reference for anyone wishing to create or change a garden. - Cornwall Gardens Trust Journal
A lesson for landscape architects everywhere. - Tree News
Author and subject overlap in many of their qualities: unshowy in temperament, meticulous in their assessment of the landscape and quietly determined to have their voices heard. - Times Literary Supplement
This biography performs a dual service. It fills a gap in the fogotton history of the post-Gertrude Jeykell, 20th-century garden; and it also presents an insightful and analytical appraisal of the life, work and character of the 'sometimes difficult' Brenda Colvin... In short, this is a well-researched and authoritative book. - Garden
This thoroughly researched, generously illustrated and incisively written biography should bring her the attention she deserves… A lesson for landscape architects everywhere. - Chartered Forester
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