MISS WILLMOTT'S GHOSTS

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, 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.

Until now. With extensive research and a wealth of never-before-seen archive material, author Sandra Lawrence has uncovered the truth about Ellen Willmott. In this stunning new biography, she she will challenge previous perceptions of this often misunderstood figure and reinstate the legacy and reputation of this fascinating woman to the impressive heights she deserves.

Sandra Lawrence is a journalist specialising in heritage, travel and garden writing, and the author of twelve non-fiction books for both adults and children, including Anthology of Amazing Women (20-Watt, 2018) which made the Guardian's Top Children's Non Fiction list, Atlas of Monsters (Templar, 2018) and Atlas of Heroes (Templar 2019) both of which were shortlisted for the SLA Information Book of the Year.