This online talk and all our lectures are FREE for Friends to access. Members of the public are welcome to join us for the live-streaming of the lecture via Zoom for just £5; please email fobs.talks@gmail.com for details.
For our second online lecture of 2026, we welcome back Catherine Horwood, for a talk looking at the life of Penelope Hobhouse, an extraordinary woman, now in her late 90s and still gardening every day.
Penelope Hobhouse's stellar career as a garden designer and historian started in the 1970s at Hadspen (now The Newt) in Somerset. She is famed worldwide for commissions, including in the UK at Walmer Castle, Wisley, Aberglasney, and for private clients across the US.
Her books on garden design and garden history remain essential reading.
Dr Catherine Horwood is an experienced speaker and the author of many books on social history, including Gardening Women (2010) and Potted History. How houseplants took over our homes (2020).
Her biography Beth Chatto. A Life with Plants (2019) was the European Garden Book of the Year in 2020.
She is in the process of finishing her biography of garden designer and author Penelope Hobhouse.
Catherine Horwood on Instagram
Catherine Horwood’s website
Image credit: Sam Walton