Winner of the European Garden Book of the Year 2019, we are delighted to welcome back Catherine Horwood to talk about an international garden designer, plant expert and scholarly garden historian, the extraordinary Penelope Hobhouse. Click here for more information.

Catherine is a social historian of women's horticultural history, houseplants and flower arranging. Contributor to many publications including Gardens Illustrated and The English Garden, and author of books including Beth Chatto. A Life with Plants, (our excellent February speaker last year). Catherine’s specialist subject is garden history, women's history, history of indoor plants, and as a biographer of Beth Chatto and Penelope Hobhouse.

Catherine is an honorary research fellow at the Bedford Centre for the History of Women at Royal Holloway, University of London. A former journalist, she has a doctorate in history on interwar dress codes and has published on the social history of sports clothes, on consumerism and women’s magazines. She has contributed to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography and to BBC Radio 4 programmes on shopping and social history.

THIS MEETING IS ON ZOOM

Click here for the link to watch (passcode: bonsai) at home OR come to St Laurence’s as usual to watch on screen together.