Geoff Hamilton: The Complete Gardener - His Gardening Ideas and How to Put Them into Practice Book

The sudden death in 1996 of Geoff Hamilton, popular presenter for 17 years of the BBC television "Gardeners' World", came as a devastating blow to his viewers and admirers. His colleague Gay Search says that many people told her it was as though they had lost a member of their own family. What was he like, this gardening Everyman, to inspire such affection and devotion? His story is told in Geoff Hamilton: A Man and His Garden, on which Gay Search has collaborated with Hamilton's identical twin brother Tony. It's an unexceptional life in many ways--National Service, agricultural college, struggling landscaping businesses, then the break into journalism and television. Hamilton's secret, it seems, was that he had no secret. A devoted, hard-working gardener and family man, he communicated directly with his viewers and readers, never talking down, sharing his skills and discoveries (most notably the use of Chinese take-away trays for seedlings) with enormous enthusiasm. He did it all himself and was entirely self-made: his television garden was his own garden. Gay Search has researched his life thoroughly, talking to family and friends to build up a warm, sympathetic portrait of this admirable man and gardener, whose great fortune was that, by dint of hard work and the right sort of luck, he was able to live a life he loved. --Robin DavidsonRead More