Alan Titchmarsh was born and brought up on the edge of Ilkley Moor in Yorkshire and started growing things at the age of ten in his parents' back garden. He left school at 15 and became an apprentice gardener in the local nursery, following this with full-time training at agricultural college and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

After a spell as Supervisor of Staff Training at Kew, he became a horticultural journalist, first as an assistant gardening books editor, then as Deputy Editor of Amateur Gardening magazine, before becoming a freelance broadcaster and writer.

The write stuff

He has twice been named Gardening Personality of the Year and for four successive years was voted Television Personality of the Year by the Garden Writers Guild. Alan has written more than forty gardening books, including the fastest selling gardening book of all time - How To Be A Gardener Book 1 - The Basics - which topped the best-seller lists for the best part of a year. Book 2 - Secret of Success also shot to the top of the charts. His four novels, Mr MacGregor (1998) The Last Lighthouse Keeper (1999), Animal Instincts (2000) and Only Dad (2001) were also best sellers, and his memoirs, Trowel And Error, sold over 200,000 copies in hardback.

A Force to be reckoned with

For seven years, Alan was the main presenter of Gardeners' World which came from his own garden and took gardening on to the BBC with the hugely popular Ground Force, where Alan revamped 67 gardens in total. The programme at it's peak, pulled in 12 million viewers. These were followed by two series of How To Be A Gardener.

Alan Lives in Hampshire with his wife and family in an old farmhouse with a two-acre garden.

For more information on Alan Titchmarsh, see his website at www.alantitchmarsh.com.