Modern Nature: Journals, 1989 – 1990

In 1986 Derek Jarman discovered that he was HIV positive. He decided to devote the few years of life that he had left to make a garden at his cottage on the barren coast of Dungeness.

Facing an uncertain future, he found solace in nature, growing all manner of plants. While some perished beneath wind and sea-spray, others flourished, creating brilliant, unexpected beauty in the wilderness.

Modern Nature is both a diary of the garden and a meditation by Jarman on his own life, his childhood, his time as a young gay man in the 1960s, and his renowned career as an artist, writer and film-maker. It is at once a lament for a lost generation, an unabashed celebration of gay sexuality, and a celebration of life in the garden.