Sir Miles Warren's book on his garden Ohinetahi is very readable and beautifully illustrated with plans, drawing and photographs, many by Ross Booker. The book certainly encourages one to want to go and see the real thing on Banks Peninsula.

The one thing that stood out for me from this story of the development of the property, was the effect of the Christchurch earthquakes particularly on the house itself.

While I have enjoyed this book and its story, I felt that it could have been made more enjoyable for the reader by the addition of a number of features.

First a map of the location of property on Banks Peninsula in relation to the city of Christchurch would really help particularly for non-New Zealand readers. Second an up-to-date plan of the garden would assist the reader to envisage more clearly the layout of the garden and park. Thirdly an index, which I realise may cost more money, would really be great for a later edition. If, for example I want to go straight to pages where there are mentions of the Ensor family an index would really assist. Similarly information about sculptors and sculptures such as Andrew Drummond could be easily located.

There are some bits that I found really confusing. The caption on p.53 refers to an early photograph of the red garden (established in 2002) but this photo has the post-earthquakes house in it. Similarly the Woodland Garden (Chapter 7) is not on the plan on p.74. Is it the same as the Native Bush Walk. More dates throughout the book would have aided this reader.

In spite of these quibbles and criticisms, this is well-worth reading. ( )