Miss Willmott's Ghosts

the extraordinary life and gardens of a forgotten genius

Sandra Lawrence

$24.99

Paperback

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English

BONNIER
15 August 2023

History; Gardening

'An amazing read! I galloped through it' Lady Antonia Fraser

'Lawrence has done an excellent job of recreating this eccentric gardening guru's life' The Times

'My pick for gardening book of the year is this page-turning life story of Ellen Willmott' The Sunday Times

'Sandra Lawrence tells her story with brio and affection' Daily Mail

'Simply brilliant and a joy to read' The English Garden

Ellen Ann Willmott was a remarkable woman whose achievements in horticulture, botany, landscape architecture, photography and more, should have made her one of the most well-known trailblazers of her age. Yet, both posthumously and within her lifetime, she instead became known as a bitter, cantankerous and eccentric miser, and her reputation has been forever stained by the image of her maliciously seeding other people's gardens with thorns.

The beginnings of this prickly myth can be traced back to her conspicuous absence at what should have been the pinnacle of her career: the Royal Horticultural Society's inaugural Victoria Medal of Honour Award ceremony, at which she was due to be one of only two female recipients. Universally interpreted as the rudest of snubs, nobody has ever stopped to question why Ellen wasn't there, or if she was really as difficult and mean as she has been portrayed ever since.

Author, Sandra Lawrence, has been granted unparalleled access to her archives, and with it has uncovered the secrets behind this thorniness. This is a book with it all: gossip, sisters, rivalry, squandered inheritance, forbidden love, bad marriages and, at the heart of it all, trailblazing talent.

By: Sandra Lawrence
Imprint: BONNIER
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 198mm, Width: 129mm, Spine: 24mm
Weight: 290g
ISBN: 9781786581556
ISBN 10: 1786581558
Pages: 352
Publication Date: 15 August 2023
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Sandra Lawrence is a freelance journalist and author, writing, over the past 20-odd years, hundreds of articles; for all the broadsheets and over 60 magazines and journals. She specialises in heritage and garden writing; publications to which she has contributed horticultural features include The Daily and Sunday Telegraph, Times Weekend, The Guardian, Independent, FT, Britain, British Heritage, The English Garden, Hortus, Landscape, Garden News, Country Life and Homes & Gardens. She is a columnist for British Heritage Travel and on the Q Trials and Treachery, Bonnier, 2017 and Instant History, Carlton, 2019) via myths, legends and folklore (including Myths & Legends, 360 Degrees, 2017; An Atlas of Heroes, Templar, 2018 and An Atlas of Monsters, Templar, 2019) and quirky heritage (Paperscapes: Paris, Welbeck, 2019; Paperscapes: London, Welbeck 2019). Sandra was shortlisted for GMG Journalist of the Year, 2018-19, for a series of three long-form essays in Hortus about the Victorian Kitchen Garden; she was also shortlisted for the SLA's Information Book Award in both 2018-19 and 2019-20.

Reviews for Miss Willmott's Ghosts: the extraordinary life and gardens of a forgotten genius

An amazing read! I galloped through * Lady Antonia Fraser * Excellent * The Times * 'Simply brilliant and a joy to read' -- Clare Foggett * The English Garden *