UNITED KINGDOM AUTHOR · GARDENING · FICTION
Alan Titchmarsh
Alan Titchmarsh MBE VMH DL was born and raised on the edge of Ilkley Moor in Yorkshire. He left school at 15 to be an apprentice gardener in the local nursery, then trained at horticultural college and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. After a spell as Supervisor of Staff Training at Kew he became a horticultural journalist, then a freelance broadcaster and writer. Alan has written gardening books, several fiction best sellers, and his memoirs. Alan has appeared on radio and television both as a gardening expert and as an interviewer and presenter. Among others, Alan’s TV credits include: BBC2's 'Gardeners' World'; 'Ground Force'; 'How To Be A Gardener'; 'The Royal Gardeners'; 'British Isles - A Natural History'; and 'The Gardener’s Year'. Alan is a Freeman of the City of London. He was appointed MBE in the 2000 New Year Honours list, and a Deputy Lieutenant of the County of Hampshire in 2001. In 2004 he was awarded the Royal Horticultural Society's highest accolade—the Victoria Medal of Honour—for outstanding services to horticulture. He is a patron or president of more than 35 charities and organizations, as well as being the founder and trustee of Alan Titchmarsh's Gardens for Schools, which makes grants to primary schools for gardens and nature areas. Music has always played an important part in Alan’s life. As a young boy he sang treble in the church choir, and as a young man he joined the Ilkley Amateur Operatic Society. Speaking about his Radio 2 show, Alan says: "I'm delighted to have a regular spot on Radio 2 having contributed to the station intermittently over the last 30 years. I'll be playing a mix of popular and classical music that I love, and hope that my listeners will enjoy it too." Source: [BBC Radio](
"Could you fold your table away, sir?"
— from Animal Instincts
Most acclaimed
Tales from Titchmarsh
Britain's favourite gardener Alan Titchmarsh has also been the most popular contributor to Gardeners' World magazine for the last twenty years. This collection of his very best columns demonstrates just why he is regularly voted the readers' favourite. His brilliant writings are, in turn, practical - just how far back should we prune our roses? - opinionated - I always rail at people who go out on a Sunday afternoon to tidy their gardens. I mean, a garden is not a sock drawer - cheeky - I have a theory that gardeners grow to look like their soil and wistful - You've got to be a bit of a dreamer to get the most out of your garden. So lay down your trowel, take off your wellies, sit back and enjoy a bit of quintessential Titchmarsh.
Folly
2001
An acclaimed master of suspense creates a heroine you will never forget in this superbly chilling novel of a woman who begins a desperate undertaking that may transform her life -- or end it.What happens if your worst fears aren't all in your mind?Rae Newborn is a woman on the edge: on the edge of sanity, on the edge of tragedy, and now on the edge of the world. She has moved to an island at the far reaches of the continent to restore the house of an equally haunted figure, her mysterious great-uncle; but as her life begins to rebuild itself along with the house, his story starts to wrap around hers. Powerful forces are stirring, but Rae cannot see where her reality leaves off and his fate begins.Fifty-two years old, Rae must battle the feelings that have long tormented her -- panic, melancholy, and a skin-crawling sense of watchers behind the trees. Before she came here, she believed that most of the things she feared existed only in her mind. And who can say, as disturbing incidents multiply, if any of the watchers on Folly Island might be real? Is Rae paranoid, as her family and the police believe, or is the threat real? Is the island alive with promise -- or with dangers? With Folly, award-winning author Laurie R. King once again powerfully redefines psychological suspense on a sophisticated and harrowing new level, and proves why legions of readers and reviewers have named her a master of the genre.From the Hardcover edition.