JANE Gardiner will be back on Sunday, February 8th 2009 to give the Friends’ annual lecture at Cannizaro House. She will be talking about the gardens of Versailles, created for King Louis XIV of France, the “Sun King”. This will cover the work of André le Nôtre, royal gardener, and the laying out of the formal terraces, the great tree-lined walks and the vast expanses of water designed to glorify the King. He would escape the crowds by relaxing in the garden's summer houses and pleasure pavilions.

A former research assistant and lecturer in the Victoria & Albert Museum education department, Jane later became a senior lecturer at Sotheby’s Institute and a deputy director of Sotheby’s U.K. She specialises in early European ceramics and glass and 17th and 18th century design. Louis XIV is her particular field. She is married to Anthony Gardiner, herb specialist and designer of the new herb garden in Cannizaro Park.