Blink plucks Lawrence's take on horticulturalist rebel

Blink Publishing, an imprint of Bonnier Books UK, has acquired the “vivid and passionately researched” biography of horticulturalist pioneer Ellen Ann Willmott by writer Sandra Lawrence. 

Susannah Otter, editorial director, acquired UK and Commonwealth rights, excluding Canada, from Ella Kahn at The DKW Literary Agency. Miss Willmott’s Ghosts will be published in hardback, e-book and audio in May 2022. 

Blink described Willmott as “a woman forgotten by mainstream history and, when remembered, often entirely misunderstood” with the “vivid and passionately researched” book using new evidence to show her in a new light. 

The publisher said: “Author and journalist Sandra Lawrence has spent years unearthing the life of Willmott, a trail-blazing horticulturalist battling for her place in a man’s world. Miss Willmott’s Ghosts... explores the world of Ellen Ann Willmott, a remarkable woman whose polymathic achievements as a gardener, musician, antiquarian, raconteuse – and obsessive photographer – should have made her one of the most famous horticulturalists of her age. Yet today her genius comes down to us compromised.  

“Drawing on previously undiscovered sources, the book sheds new light on this multi-faceted woman, revealing the challenges and hurdles she faced as a single woman of significant means – and a Victorian girl’s education. Sandra has been granted unparalleled access to Miss Willmott’s newly excavated archives and uncovered her secrets, one by one. Her spectacular riches-to-rags story is one of elegance and excess, of gossip and rivalry, of determination and achievement and perhaps just a little eccentricity.” 

Susannah Otter said: "How had I, a Victoriana/gardening nut, never heard of Ellen Willmott? I can’t wait for the rest of the world to (re)meet this astonishing woman and hear the twists and turns of her unexpected story, vividly and beautifully told through Sandra’s perfect prose and immaculate research." 

Lawrence said: "Even after a lifetime’s obsession with Ellen Willmott I had no idea just how complex, exciting – and brave – her story would turn out to be. Scrambling through those cellars, clad in a boiler suit, head torch, mask and gloves, piecing together the truth from rotting fragments, has been the most exciting time of my life."  

Lawrence is a journalist and author specialising in heritage and garden writing. She is a member of the Garden Media Guild (GMG) and was shortlisted for GMG Journalist of the Year, 2018–19, for a series of three long-form essays in Hortus about the Victorian Kitchen Garden. She was also shortlisted for the School Library Association’s Information Book Award for two years running. She is author of The Witch’s Garden (Welbeck/ Royal Botanic Gardens Kew).