An almost impossible thing : the radical lives of Britain's pioneering women gardeners / Fiona Davison.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Davison, Fiona, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Horticulturists--Great Britain--Biography.

Horticulturists.

Women gardeners--Great Britain--Biography.

Women gardeners.

Gardening--Great Britain--History.

Gardening.

Physical Description:

332 pages : illustrations ; 20 cm

Edition:

Paperback edition.

Place of Publication:

[Beaminster, Dorset] : Little Toller, 2023

Summary:

"While working at the Royal Horticultural Society, Fiona Davison came across a cache of letters from a young gardener who was denied a scholarship by the RHS, on the grounds that she was female. Appalled, and intrigued to find out what became of Olive, Fiona began to research the wider story of early female professional gardeners and discovered a group of pioneers whose struggles against patriarchy changed forever the rights and opportunities for women gardeners. Although gardens are often seen as a refuge, a place to escape from the troubles of the modern world, this book looks back to a period when British gardens were an arena for radical and far-reaching experiments. A time when the ability to cultivate land was mobilised by a group of convention-busting women who wanted to change the world. An Almost Impossible Thing follows six hitherto little-known women gardeners in the years before the First World War, and examines their lives in the context of suffragism, collectivism and Empire"-- Publisher description.

Contents:

New women

If Eve had a spade

Garden 'boys'

Women take charge

New women for old acres

Designing green cities

No shrinking violets

The call of empire

This enchanted place

Mrs Bull wants a spade

Thirty thousand women can save us!

At the end of the day.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Local Notes:

Athenaeum copy: Jones Fund bookplate.

ISBN:

9781915068378

1915068371

OCLC:

1457081521