Anna Pavord (born 20 September 1940) ''People of Today'' (2017) Debrett's, "Anna Pavord" is a British horticultural writer. She wrote for ''

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the ...

'' for over twenty years and for ''The independent'' for over thirty years - from its first to last print edition. Gardening Media Guild profile
/ref> Her book ''The Tulip: The Story of a Flower That Has Made Men Mad'' (1999) was listed as a ''The New York Times'' best seller.

Life and work

Pavord was born in Abergavenny, Monmouthshire, the daughter of headmaster Arthur Vincent Pavord, a best-selling garden author (d. 1989), and Welsh teacher Christabel Lewis (d. 1978). "Anna Pavord: silently cultivating language"
''The Herald'' 21 February 2016 The family had neither TV nor a car and she spent many hours roaming the Welsh mountains with her brother. As a child she loved radio jazz and dancing. She attended Abergavenny High School for Girls the

University of Leicester , mottoeng = So that they may have life , established = , type = public research university , endowment = £20.0 million , budget = £326 million , chancellor = David Willetts , vice_chancellor = Nishan Canagarajah , head_lab ...

and graduated in 1962 with a

B.A. Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...

(honours) degree in English. Pavord married Trevor Ware on 18 June 1966. The couple lived on a sailing barge on the Thames at

Shepperton Shepperton is an urban village in the Borough of Spelthorne, Surrey, approximately south west of central London. Shepperton is equidistant between the towns of Chertsey and Sunbury-on-Thames. The village is mentioned in a document of 959 AD ...

, gardening the 80 feet of riverbank that came with the mooring. The barge is where her first daughter was born. "I used to hate gardening"
7 April 2007, ''The Independent'' She has three daughters, Oenone (b. 1967), Vanessa (b. 1970) and Tilly (b. 1974); and 12 grandchildren. The family lived in Sussex and then later, looking for somewhere wilder, bought The Old Rectory in

Puncknowle Puncknowle ( ) is a village and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in the English counties, county of Dorset in southwest England, situated on the southern slopes of the River Bride, Dorset, Bride Valley approximately east of Bridport and ...

, West

Dorset Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset. Covering an area of , ...

, built for rector Thomas Seeley in 1702. The Georgian estate had one and a half acres of land, including a walled garden, a 13th-century dovecote and a neo-Gothic stone folly, built by Henry Etherington in 1846. It had been empty since the war, the house dilapidated and collapsing the garden overgrown. They spent the first 18 months there, with young children, aged six and four with a third on the way, clearing the land back to the boundaries. They renovated and planted, staying for over thirty years, with no central heating for half that period. She grew peaches, apricots, nectarines, greengages and French pears along the warm garden walls. In 2002 the family moved to another home in Dorset with 18 acres of land and a garden already stocked with 130 species of plant. "Queen of the jungle heads back to the wild"
29 March 2003 ''Telegraph'' Pavord worked as copywriter for Lintas Advertising Agency (1962–63), as production assistant and eventual director of '' Late Night Line-Up'', a daily, live TV and media show on

BBC TV BBC Television is a service of the BBC. The corporation has operated a public broadcast television service in the United Kingdom, under the terms of a royal charter, since 1927. It produced television programmes from its own studios from 19 ...

1963–70. She wrote for ''

'' (1970–92), ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publish ...

'' (from 1986), ''The Sunday Times'', ''Country Life'', ''

Country Living ''Country Living'' is an American lifestyle and home magazine published by the Hearst Corporation since 1978. The monthly magazine focuses on food, home renovation, home decor, DIY and lifestyle. The magazine hosts four Country Living Fairs a y ...

'' and ''Elle'', and was associate editor of ''Gardens Illustrated'' (1993–2008). She was the writer and presenter of ''Flowering Passions'', a 10-part TV series on

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service ...

, appears regularly on BBC radio and was featured on "

Desert Island Discs ''Desert Island Discs'' is a radio programme broadcast on BBC Radio 4. It was first broadcast on the BBC Forces Programme on 29 January 1942. Each week a guest, called a "castaway" during the programme, is asked to choose eight recordings (usua ...

" in 2017. In ''The Curious Gardener'' (2010) Pavord assembles a collection of articles from her newspaper columns. She wrote ''The Tulip: The Story of a Flower That Has Made Men Mad'' (1999) which was listed as a ''The New York Times'' best seller. Pavord was awarded the Gold

Veitch Memorial Medal The Veitch Memorial Medal is an international prize issued annually by the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS). Goal The prize is awarded to "persons of any nationality who have made an outstanding contribution to the advancement and improvement o ...

from the

Royal Horticultural Society The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), founded in 1804 as the Horticultural Society of London, is the UK's leading gardening charity. The RHS promotes horticulture through its five gardens at Wisley (Surrey), Hyde Hall (Essex), Harlow Carr (Nor ...

(1991), and an ''Honorary Doctor of Letters'' degree from the

(2005). She is a member of the Gardens Panel for

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses. The charity states that i ...

and chairs the Gardens Panel of the

National Trust The National Trust, formally the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, is a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, there is a separate and ...

. She received the Garden Media Guild Lifetime Achievement Award in 2020. Pavord is a trustee of

Great Dixter Great Dixter is a house in Northiam, East Sussex, England. It was built in 1910–12 by architect Edwin Lutyens, who combined an existing mid-15th century house on the site with a similar structure brought from Benenden, Kent, together with his ...

, and was a close friend of

Christopher Lloyd Christopher Allen Lloyd (born October 22, 1938) is an American actor. He has appeared in many theater productions, films, and on television since the 1960s. He is known for portraying Dr. Emmett "Doc" Brown in the ''Back to the Future'' tril ...

.Great Dixter profile
/ref>

Books and publications

*''Growing Things'' (1982) *''Foliage'' (1990) *''The Flowering Year'' (1991) *''Gardening Companion'' (1992) *''The Border Book'' (1994) *''The New Kitchen Garden'' (1996) *''The Tulip'' (1999, 2nd edn 2019) Bloomsbury Publishing *''Plant Partners'' (2001) *''The Naming of Names'' (2005) or ''Searching for Order'' (2009) *''Bulb'' (2009) *''The Curious Gardener'' (2010) *''Landskipping'' (2016)

References

External links

National Portrait Gallery
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pavord, Anna 1940 births Living people English garden writers English journalists English non-fiction writers English women non-fiction writers