Val Bourne
Val Bourne is an award-winning garden writer, hands on gardener and committed plantaholic. She manages her third of an acre garden without using chemicals – something she has always believed in. Her keynote bookThe Living Jigsaw , is all about her eco-friendly garden in The Cotswolds. Her latest book isTough Plants , out in January 2025. She has been interested in the natural world since childhood and has actively tried to influence gardeners to be greener in order to help the survival of our planet. Val judged RHS plant trials for 16 years and she appears in many publications including The Daily Telegraph. She is the Vice President of the Hardy Plant Society.
Mike Gilson
Michael Gilson is an author, writer, award-winning journalist and communicator. His new book Behind the Privet Hedge: Richard Sudell, the Suburban Garden and the Beautification of Britain tells the story of the explosion of suburban gardening in the early 20th Century and how, despite their stereotyping as symbols of dull middle-class conformity, the new open spaces were seen as in the vanguard of attempts to create a more egalitarian country. Royal Horticultural Society historian Brent Elliott wrote: ‘Everyone who is interested in twentieth-century garden history should read this book.’ Michael is also a freelance journalist and writer and, as Associate Fellow of the School of Media, Arts and Humanities, University of Sussex, delivers occasional lectures to journalism students. He has served for 30 years as a newspaper and website editor. He has been an editor of, among others, The News, Portsmouth, and The Argus, Brighton. He has freelanced for among others The Guardian, Times, Sunday Times, Irish Times, The Lancet. In 2019 he was awarded an MA (with distinction) in Garden and Landscape History at the Institute of Historical Research, University of London.
Dave Goulson
Dave Goulson is Professor of Biology at University of Sussex, UK. He has published more than 350 scientific articles on the ecology of insects. He is the author of Bumblebees (OUP 2010), and of several bestselling popular books including A Sting in the Tale (2013), A Buzz in the Meadow ( 2014), The Garden Jungle (2019) and Silent Earth (2021), collectively translated in 20 languages. Goulson founded the Bumblebee Conservation Trust in 2006, a charity that has grown to 12,000 members. He is an Ambassador for the UK Wildlife Trusts & National Allotment Society.
Manoj Malde
Manoj Malde is an award-winning garden designer, writer and public speaker. Although raised in the UK, he attributes much of his love of colour to his ethnic background and Indian ancestry. As a graduate of the Master’s programme in fashion design at the Royal College of Art, Manoj’s career has taken him to Italy, Germany, New York, Hong Kong and India. He worked in the fashion industry for 18 years, latterly as creative director. Manoj then studied garden design at the English Gardening School and uses much of his fashion experience within his present career as a landscape designer. Although the materials have changed, his thought process still begins with themes, mood boards, colour palettes and textures. Manoj has a wealth of knowledge and design experience. He is the author of Your Outdoor Room: How to design a garden you can live in.