Modern Nature

This is Derek Jarman's diary from 1989/1990 as he moves between London and Dungeness and in and out of hospital. The parts about the garden could use more colour pictures really to show what he is talking about, though perhaps my limited interest in gardening limits my interest a bit anyway! I was more interested in the bits of gossip about touring with the Pet Shop Boys and being out and about in London. Sometimes the format of a diary means there is a bit of a lack of framing/context as obviously Jarman wouldn't have needed it at the time. Anyway although the book didn't blow me away I did come out of it really wanting to visit Prospect Cottage, and with a renewed interest in Jarman's work.

Modern nature. The journals of Derek Jarman, 1989 - 1990 consists of the diaries that Derek Jarman wrote in 20 months. Terminally ill with AIDS Jarman moved away from London in the late 1980s. At Dungeness he bought a Victorian fisherman's cottage, "Prospect Cottage" on a piece of land consisting mostly of shingle. He renovated the cottage, and around the cottage he started cultivating a garden.

The book describes the construction and development of this garden, in one of the bleakest and harshest landscapes found in Britain. The permanent lethal threat of the nuclear powerplant, the desolate landscape and the harsh, weatherbeaten environment seem to offer very few prospects, mirrorring Jarman's own prospects, perhaps. Still, despite the show more odds, Jarman develops his garden.

Besides the progress of working in his garden, Jarman also describes observations of nature. Despite the odds, Dungeness is one of the richest environments in terms of British flora and fauna. There is a remarkable variety of wildlife living at Dungeness, with over 600 different types of plants: a third of all those found in Britain. It is one of the best places in Britain to find invertebrates such as moths, bees, beetles, and spiders; many of these are very rare, some found nowhere else in Britain.

Jarman cultivated his garden in the shingle surrounding the cottage, "Prospect Cottage", a mixture of sculptures assembled from driftwood and other flotsam from the beaches of Dungeness, and hardy plants which could survive the coastal weather. For Jarman the garden was like a therapy. Prospect Cottage, its garden and the surrounding nature of Dungeness are heavily featured in Modern nature. The journals of Derek Jarman, 1989 - 1990, which was first published in 1991. They are also the scene of Jarman's art house film "The Garden".

Modern Nature: Journals, 1989-1990 is a journal, written over the said period and published in 1991. Yesterday, I incorrectly wrote that these were the final 20 months of his life, but this is not true. In fact, there is another volume of journals for the period 1991 - 1994: Smiling in Slow Motion: Journals, 1991-1994, which was published in 2000.

Another book is called Derek Jarman's Garden published in 1995. The blurb says "This book is his own record of how this garden evolved, from its beginnings in 1985." My book seller enlists yet another title: Pharmacopoeia. A Dungeness Notebook presented as bringing together "the best of Derek Jarman's writing on nature, gardening and Prospect Cottage".

I wonder why I thought Modern Nature: Journals, 1989-1990 describes the construction and development of his garden, whereas in fact, according to the other book, its beginnings lay in 1985.

I have reread the introduction and the first two months of the journal. There is no reference to the earlier dates, and the suggestion is wholly that 1989, the beginning of the book is the beginning of the garden. show less