The idea of the garden as a place of sinister seclusion has found its way to the world of high fashion. In Ballard’s characteristically bleak tale, a desperate mob advances on an elegant garden, where Count Axel and his wife live out a civilized, secluded existence. The selfish gardener of the 21st century creates idyllic vistas that rely on fertilizers and pesticides that poison the wider ecosystem or demand water in a time of drought. In her gripping memoir of the Second World War, “War in Val d’Orcia,” she describes a similar tide of desperate humanity approaching her garden gate. Unlike Ballard’s Count Axel, she didn’t seek to repel them, retiring to the library to dust her statues.

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Persons: J.G ., Count Axel, Anna Wintour, Iris Origo, Val d’Orcia, Christopher Lloyd, Fergus Garrett, Garrett Organizations: Vogue Locations: J.G . Ballard, La Foce, Tuscany, Val, England