Anna Pavord (born 20 September 1940) is the gardening correspondent for The Independent and the author of a number of books on plants and gardening. She is an associate editor of Gardens Illustrated magazine, has written for The Observer for some twenty years, and contributed to Country Life, Country Living and Elle Decoration. Besides gardening her interests include sailing, black and white films, Evelyn Waugh and the rain forests of Central America.
Pavord was born in Abergavenny, the daughter of headmaster Arthur Pavord and teacher Christabel Lewis. She now lives in Puncknowle in south-west England. She attended the University of Leicester and graduated in 1962 with a B.A.(honours) degree in English. Not aligned with any political party, her religious views are those of a Pantheist.[1] She married Trevor Ware on 18 June 1966 and has three daughters, Oenone, Vanessa and Tilly.
“The Rectory”, her rural garden in Dorset, has been both a healing influence and source of inspiration for more than thirty years. She took up writing about gardening in order to finance the revamping of the building and garden. The one and a half acres of garden of this 300-year-old estate in Dorset was used as a nursery for her ideas on horticulture. In the beginning the garden was overgrown and the building dilapidated. It was here that she first planted tulips, and intrigued by their beauty, planted many thousands more.
Books in order of publication:
- Growing Things (1982)
- Foliage (1990)
- The Flowering Year (1991)
- Gardening Companion (1992)
- The Border Book (1994)
- The New Kitchen Garden (1996)
- The Tulip (1999)
- Plant Partners (2001)
- The Naming of Names (2005)
- Bulb (2009)
- The Curious Gardener (2010)
- Landskipping (2016
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