In an interview on Horticultural Inspiration

And what is your passion now?

About ten years ago I was doing a book on the history of gardening, and when I got to the bit about Islam I decided I had to go and see for myself. So I went to Iran for the first time and became fascinated by the great Persian tradition in gardening. I’ve been back almost every year since.

What have you found particularly inspiring?

More than anyone else, I think, it’s Emperor Babur, the founder of the Mughal Dynasty in India. He was a great warrior and commander – descended from both Tamburlaine and Genghis Khan – but also with a wonderful eye for nature and landscape. It’s rare to combine warfare and gardening. In The Babur Nama he describes the country in Fergana in Uzbekistan where he grew up, for example, noting the topography and the plants, even though he left when he was only 12. He describes the Judas tree in bloom, and planting willows around a pond and spotting wild tulips in the fields up above Kabul.

I’m writing a book about Mughal gardens at the moment, trying to follow Babur’s trail down from Afghanistan, through the Punjab and on to Delhi. And the amazing thing is that, even when campaigning, if he paused amongst beautiful scenery, he would have his men do some landscaping, enlarging a stream here or moving a bank there. He must have been the most extraordinary man and his memoir makes the best kind of bedside reading: intrigue, conquest, history on an epic scale and gardening!