Shirley Hibberd

James Shirley Hibberd was one of the most popular and successful gardening writers of the Victorian era. He was a best-selling editor of three gardening magazines, including Amateur Gardening, the only 19th-century gardening magazine still being published today. He wrote over a dozen books on gardening and several more on natural history and related subjects. He promoted town gardening, aquariums, bee-keeping, vegetarianism, water recycling, environmental conservation and the prevention of cruelty to animals and birds, all before they were taken up as 'causes' in the twentieth century. Most important of all, he taught and promoted amateur gardening, before it was acceptable among the gardening establishment, and helped to found the whole consumer industry in amateur gardening that we have today.