The 22 gardens selected for Secret Gardens of East Anglia celebrate the culture, beauty and diversity of the counties of Suffolk, Norfolk, Cambridgeshire and Essex, and all deserve to be better known.

The big skies and the extraordinary light of East Anglia make it unlike anywhere else in Britain, and offer the most amazing natural conditions in which to create gardens.

Introduced by eminent East Anglian plantswoman Beth Chatto, the gardens appearing on these pages are brought to life by the award-winning author and photographer team of Barbara Segall and Marcus Harpur. From each garden we can learn about the creator's style, their talent for exploiting the genius loci, and the specific challenges and rewards they have encountered.

Featured gardens include:

Columbine Hall - a moated garden with a series of green rooms
Helmingham Hall Gardens - a gem of a garden hidden in its own moated island
Kirtling Tower - a field of daffodils for a Tudor gatehouse
Raveningham Hall - exquisite planting in the RHS president's private garden
The Manor House, Fenstanton - garden rooms on Capability Brown's private estate
Ulting Wick - thousands of tulips against a backdrop of black wooden barns
Winterton Lighthouse - a lush yet restrained garden framing a lighthouse
Wyken Hall - vines and roses around an Elizabethan manor house

Tour even more magnificent English gardens with Secret Gardens of the Cotswolds and Secret Gardens of Somerset.

Illustrated by: Marcus Harpur