African Odyssey: a horticultural tour of Marrakesh

Does a city ever really need lawns? That's a question posed by Angelica Gray in her new book Gardens of Marrakesh. In preparation for reading it, I've been trying to summon up images of Marrakesh that aren't straight out of desperate cliché. So far I've done badly. Keith Richards and Anita Pallenberg much the worse for wear; Yves Saint Laurent wiped out and lying low on some cane furniture after some of the 1960s' most fabulous fashion shows. That funny but totally Californian song by Crosby, Stills and Nash. A hotbed of drugs, souks, rally cars and exotic carpets…






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