About Victoria Summerley

Victoria Summerley was born in Surrey but grew up in Scotland. She graduated from the University of Edinburgh in 1977 and joined the Evening News in Edinburgh as a graduate trainee journalist. She moved back to London in 1983 and has worked on The Times Higher Education Supplement, the Evening Standard, The Observer, and, from 2000 until 2012, The Independent where she was executive editor, and deputy editor of the i newspaper.

Victoria has always been a keen gardener, but first wrote about gardening when she was sent by Sir Max Hastings, then editor of the Evening Standard, to interview Sir Terence Conran about his design for the Standard’s Chelsea Flower Show garden in 1999. She wrote numerous articles about gardening and related issues while on The Independent, winning the prestigious Journalist of the Year award from the Garden Media Guild in 2010.

When she quit the Independent in 2012, her intention was to move to the country and spend all her time in the garden. However, she was persuaded to write The Secret Gardens of Cotswolds, and subsequently Great Gardens of London and The Secret Gardeners, working with photographer Hugo Rittson Thomas.

She lives in the Cotswolds with her dog Rufus, her cat Mario and four chickens, where she opens her garden for the National Gardens Scheme.