This talk and all our lectures are FREE for Friends of the Botanical Gardens to attend. Members of the public are also welcome to join us on payment of £5 at the door on the day. Live talks are held in the Education Centre in the grounds of the Botanical Gardens - easily accessed via the Thompson Road Entrance.

In this talk, Ann Treneman reflects on the life lessons that she has learned over the past three years having changed career at age 62, moving from being chief theatre critic at the Times with a punishing schedule of long days and nights to a career in horticulture via an RHS diploma and an MA in Landscape Architecture at Sheffield University.

She describes how after more than 40 years of deadlines and journalism she was ready for a change and how she coped with being the oldest person in (nearly) every room, facing technological challenges, and what it really means to be out of your comfort zone.

The change of direction proved successful as her garden designs for RHS Chatsworth (2020, show cancelled), RHS Tatton Park (2021) and RHS Chelsea (2022) followed.

Ann Treneman is an award winning journalist who has worked for The Times for more than 20 years including stints as political sketchwriter and chief theatre critic. At the age of 62, she decided to leave full-time journalism to do a degree in landscape architecture and learn more about plants. She was an exhibitor at RHS Tatton Park in 2021 in the Community Border category (silver medal) and at RHS Chelsea in 2022, Container Garden Category, winning a silver-gilt as well as the People’s Choice Award. She is the author of four books and currently writes a weekly column in The Times.

Ann’s Instagram

Ann on Twitter