Percy William David Izzard (September 1877 – 17 June 1968) was the well-known gardening correspondent on the ''

Daily Mail The ''Daily Mail'' is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper and news websitePeter Wilb"Paul Dacre of the Daily Mail: The man who hates liberal Britain", ''New Statesman'', 19 December 2013 (online version: 2 January 2014) publish ...

'' newspaper and author of several books on gardening.

Life and works

Percy Izzard was the first regular agricultural and horticultural correspondent in the popular press and wrote for the ''Daily Mail'' for a period of 50 years. He was noted for his book ''Homeland: A Year of Country Days'', a collection of 365 of his "Country Diary" columns from the ''Daily Mail'', with black-and-white illustrations by his wife Florence Louise Izzard and

Will G. Mein William Gordon Mein (4 April 1868 - 1939) was a British book illustrator who flourished in the late 19th to early 20th century. He lived in London from around the turn of the century. Life and works Mein was born in Kelso, Scotland, Kelso, Rox ...

. He was claimed by his son, the writer

Ralph Izzard Ralph William Burdick Izzard, OBE (27 August 1910 – 2 December 1992) was an English journalist, author, adventurer and, during World War II, a British Naval Intelligence officer.''The Independent''Obituary – Ralph Izzard, 14 December 1 ...

, to have been the inspiration for

William Boot William Boot is a fictional journalist who is the protagonist in the 1938 Evelyn Waugh comic novel ''Scoop.'' Character Boot is the young author of a regular column on country life for a London newspaper named the ''Daily Beast''. His affected s ...

in the

Evelyn Waugh Arthur Evelyn St. John Waugh (; 28 October 1903 – 10 April 1966) was an English writer of novels, biographies, and travel books; he was also a prolific journalist and book reviewer. His most famous works include the early satires ''Decli ...

novel "

Scoop Scoop, Scoops or The scoop may refer to: Objects * Scoop (tool), a shovel-like tool, particularly one deep and curved, used in digging * Scoop (machine part), a component of machinery to carry things * Scoop stretcher, a device used for casualt ...

". He was an authority on roses and the Percy Izzard rose was named for him.''Bulletin of the Garden Club of America'', 1959, p.14

Notable works

*''Homeland: A Year of Country Days'' (1918) * ''Daily Mail Garden Plans'' (1929) * ''Breeds of British Poultry'' (1933) * ''Grow it Yourself: Daily Mail Practical Instruction Book on Food from the Garden in War-Time'' (1940)

References

1877 births 1968 deaths English gardeners British garden writers English rose horticulturists Daily Mail journalists Officers of the Order of the British Empire {{UK-nonfiction-writer-stub