Celebrating Garden Writer and Pioneering Journalist Anne Scott-James

April 5, 1913

Today is the birthday of one of Britain's pioneering female journalists and a marvelous garden author, Anne Scott-James.

In 1934, Anne started as a secretary at Vogue before rising through the ranks to become Beauty Editor.

After a brilliant career in journalism - including stints at Harper’s Bazaar and the Daily Mail, Anne became a garden writer.

Anne's books included The Best Plants For Your Garden, The Pleasure Garden (a personal favorite because it was charmingly illustrated by her husband), Gardening Letters To My Daughter, Down to Earth, and Sissinghurst: The Making of a Garden.

Regarding Sissinghurst, Anne wrote,

Sissinghurst is the last cottage garden made on a grand scale, but fortunately, it does not mark the end of cottage gardening.

Anne’s children followed in her footsteps and ended up in journalism.

Anne’s daughter Clare Hastings also became a garden writer, the author of Gardening Notes from a Late Bloomer. 

Clare wrote a memoir of her mother, released in 2020, called Hold the Front Page!: The Wit and Wisdom of Anne Scott-James.

It was Anne Scott-James who wrote,

However small your garden, you must provide for two of the serious gardener's necessities: a tool shed and a compost heap.

and

To pick a flower is so much more satisfying than just observing it or photographing it...  
So, in later years, I have grown as many flowers as possible for children to pick in my garden.