Derek Jarman's Garden

It was an unprepossessing site--a bleak, desolate expanse of shingle facing a nuclear power plant in Dungeness, Kent. Battered by wind, the area had the strongest sunlight, lowest rainfall and longest growing season in Britain. On learning that he was HIV-positive, filmmaker Derek Jarman purchased a fisherman's cottage and began to build an unusual garden. This book is his record of how it evolved from 1986 until his death in 1994. Jarman (whose films include The Last of England, Wittgenstein and Blue) started by collecting stones from the beach and arranging them in circles; he added driftwood, antique tools and found objects for sculpture, then put in native shrubs and flowers. Completed, the garden evokes serenity and pleasure, reflecting Jarman's talents in the visual arts. Sooley's stunning photographs are a fitting memorial to man and garden. (Feb.)