Beth Chatto ran her own Garden and Nursery for Unusual Plants at Elmstead Market near Colchester. Winner of ten Gold Medals at Chelsea, she also held the Royal Horticultural Society's Victoria Medal of Honour and an honorary doctorate from Essex University for her services to horticulture. She is the author of a host of gardening classics and is also co-author of DEAR FRIEND AND GARDENER, written with her long-standing friend and fellow gardener, Christopher Lloyd. She died in 2018.