Titchmarsh, Alan "Trowel and Error"

Titchmarsh, Alan "Trowel and Error" - 2002

Alan Titchmarsh, to know him is to love him. He brought gardening to a world that had almost forgotten about it. I am not a big gardener myself, alright, I am not a gardener at all, but my father was a very enthusiastic one and I see a lot of him in Alan Titchmarsh - or is it the other way around?

Anyway, the presenter of "Ground Force" and "Gardener's World" writes about his life. He writes the way he talks, he is the same nice guy from next door as he is in his programmes. And listening to his story, you understand why that is the case. He had a normal upbringing, nothing posh, nothing special. He found his love of flowers and made it his job. No, his destiny. He is very smart, so he doesn't just stay in the garden, he goes out and teaches the world. And not just about gardening. I also love it when he presents classical music or other important British events.

He is an example to us all, he does what he loves and brings it to perfection.

Well done, Mr. Titchmarsh. Stay the way you are and delight us more with your many different talents.

From the back cover: "With the engaging charm, warm humour and down-to-earth style that has made him Britain's favourite television gardener and a popular TV presenter, Alan Titchmarsh has now written 'a touch of the memoirs'.
Brilliantly evoking the 1950s of his Yorkshire childhood, this is a story of a wide-eyed childhood, of early and embarrassing encounters with girls, of unhappy school days and the eventual discovery of a talent and love for making things grow.
With warnings that he would never amount to much, he left school at fifteen to become a gardener, and worked his way up to the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Having picked up his spade at a n early age, he went on to pick up his pen, editing the books of his hero Percy Thrower, and finally getting a chance to put his own wards in print, and present his own gardening programmes.
Few gardeners can boast of meeting Nelson Mandela and Bette Davis, Julia Roberts and the Queen. Fewer still can claim to be best-selling novelists. But whether he is writing about a visit to the Palace, or giving 'Pretty Woman' a gardening book, Alan Titchmarsh recounts his tales of 'a life on earth' with wry amusement and gentle self-deprecation.
While others kiss and tell, Alan Titchmarsh smiles and passes by, taking notes along the way, and wondering why the heck it happened to him."