Carol Klein

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Carol Klein
Carol Klein.jpg
Klein at the 2010 RHS Tatton Park show
Born(1945-06-24)24 June 1945
Walkden, Lancashire, England
NationalityBritish
EducationBolton School
OccupationTelevision presenter
EmployerBBC
Known fortelevision gardening programmes
TelevisionGardeners' World

Carol Klein VMH (born 24 June 1945)[1] is an English gardening expert, who also works as a television presenter and newspaper columnist.

Early life[]

Born in Walkden, Lancashire, in 1945, Klein attended Bolton School but left school when she was 15. Interviewed for Lancashire Life in 2014 she recalled: "I think I was quite close to being chucked out. I loved art and biology but in those days you had to choose between the two subjects. I was fed up about that." She wanted to go to art school but her father would not allow it and she ended up selling buttons and stockings at the Kendal Milne department store in Manchester. Her love of gardening was inspired partly by her grandfather, whose allotment she enjoyed, and partly by her mother.[2]

Klein trained as an art teacher and taught in schools in Shepherd's Bush, London before moving to Devon. There she lectured at North Devon College and taught art at South Molton Secondary School and Community College before setting up her own plant nursery, Glebe Cottage Plants.[3] She exhibited at more than 200 Royal Horticultural Society shows and began exhibiting at the annual Chelsea Flower Show in 1990, where her displays won a total of six gold medals.[4][5]

Television[]

Klein made her television debut on Gardeners' World in 1989 and has since presented other gardening programmes such as Real Gardens and Open Gardens.

Projects include Life in a Cottage Garden with Carol Klein which followed a year in the life of Klein's garden at Glebe Cottage in North Devon, and Grow Your Own Veg. Each week the programme looked at a different group of crop plants or techniques suitable for home gardening. Both programmes were made for BBC Two. She has been a permanent presenter of Gardeners' World since 2005.

Klein has been described as having a "weather-beaten face, forthright manner and fruity accent – mainly West Country but with hints of her native Manchester.."[6]

In 2013 she was a joint presenter for two episodes of BBC's Great British Garden Revival.[7]

Writing[]

As well as television work, Klein has written a number of best-selling books for Mitchell Beazley and writes for gardening publications such as BBC Gardeners' World magazine as well as a column for The Guardian. She writes a weekly column, syndicated through the Trinity Mirror regional's newspaper publishing business, which appears in the "Saturday Extra" magazine given with regional newspaper titles such as the Liverpool Echo[8] and Manchester Evening News.

Personal life[]

Klein is married to Neil Klein and has two daughters, Annie and Alice. Annie, 40, lives in California, Alice, 38, is closer to home in Lewisham - and recently gave birth to her second child. [9] In 2011 Klein's nursery business, Glebe Cottage Plants, based at her home at Chittlehamholt near Umberleigh, which took orders from all over the UK, was forced to close after a dispute with her neighbour.[10]

In 2016 she was voted the nation's favourite gardener in a poll for Yorkshire Women's Life Magazine over her Gardener's World colleague Monty Don.[11]

In March 2018 Klein was awarded the Victoria Medal of Honour by the Royal Horticultural Society.[12]

Bibliography[]

  • Plant Personalities: Choosing and Growing Plants by Character with Jonathan Buckley (Cassell Illustrated, 2004) ISBN 1-84403-046-6
  • RHS Grow Your Own Veg (Mitchell Beazley, 2007) ISBN 978-1-84533-293-8
  • RHS Grow Your Own Fruit (Mitchell Beazley, 2008) ISBN 978-1-84533-434-5
  • RHS Grow Your Own Veg Journal (Mitchell Beazley, 2008) ISBN 978-1-84533-471-0
  • Cook Your Own Veg (Mitchell Beazley, 2008) ISBN 978-1-84533-407-9
  • Making a Garden (Mitchell Beazley, 2015) ISBN 978-1-84533-797-1

References[]

  1. ^ "Carol Klein". IMDb. Retrieved 13 November 2018.
  2. ^ "Carol Klein on her dad's hatred of gardening, her love of motorbikes and a major new series for next year". Retrieved 13 November 2018.
  3. ^ Carol Klein (31 January 2009). "Carol Klein on busy days in her Devon garden". The Guardian. Retrieved 3 December 2014.
  4. ^ "BBC Two - Gardeners' World - Carol Klein". BBC. Retrieved 23 May 2020.
  5. ^ "RHS Ambassador: Carol Klein / RHS Gardening". www.rhs.org.uk. Retrieved 23 May 2020.
  6. ^ "TV star Carol Klein of Gardeners' World is caught up in a stinking row". The Daily Telegraph. 3 September 2011. Retrieved 3 December 2014.
  7. ^ "BBC Two - Great British Garden Revival, Series 1". BBC. Retrieved 23 May 2020.
  8. ^ Neil Macdonald (4 March 2013). "Saturdays are getting even better in your Liverpool Echo". liverpoolecho. Retrieved 3 December 2014.
  9. ^ "Everything you need to know about Carol Klein: Age, children, net worth and more". 18 February 2021.
  10. ^ Wainwright, Martin (31 August 2011). "TV's Carol Klein closes nursery after neighbours kick up a stink". The Guardian. Retrieved 31 March 2018.
  11. ^ "PressReader.com - Connecting People Through News". www.pressreader.com. Retrieved 31 March 2018.
  12. ^ "Carol Klein awarded RHS Victoria Medal of Honour". Retrieved 31 March 2018.

External links[]

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