Ian Hamilton Finlay (1925-2006) was a leading Scottish poet, artist, sculptor and garden designer. His garden at Stonypath, now called ‘Little Sparta’ has been described as ‘the only truly original garden created since 1945’. 

These letters to (and from) Finlay’s friend, the English poet and scholar, Stephen Bann, centre on the initial development of the garden at Stonypath, near Edinburgh, later to become the world renowned ‘Little Sparta’. They cover Finlay’s turn away from poetry towards sculpture and garden design, and the thinking behind, and consequences of, this development.