Expert author shuns limelight

Is this just what the doctor ordered?

It’s more than 50 years since the first of many Expert books appeared – a new-style guide which briefly covered many aspects of plant care.

Enlarged editions followed, but the author, Dr David Hessayon, promised that one day a truly comprehensive Garden Expert would be produced, covering all the aspects of gardening.

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For decades, a stream of Expert on specific subjects were published, becoming world best-sellers – there are now 26 titles in 23 languages and 53 million copies in print – the best-selling gardening books in history.

But now, at last, the comprehensive one has arrived – combining all the gardening Experts rolled into one.

The Complete Garden Expert is described as a 256-page, one-stop guide to all the garden, with 15 chapters covering everything the average gardener needs to know, from fences to fuchsias, from garden design to garden problems, from A to Z. The question has to be asked: how is it possible to get so much in to so little?

But for the man who is the world’s biggest selling writer of non-fiction books (only the Bible has sold more) it should pose no problem.

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David Hessayon’s family were from sunny Cyprus but he took root in chilly Salford and came to college in gloomy Leeds. Now well into his 80s, he admits that he could talk for England.

He is, quite literally, a man of words – knowledgeable, informative, humourous and recognised as an inspiration to millions of amateur gardeners.

He is responsible for more than half of all the gardening books sold in the UK and it has been estimated that one out of every two households owns at least one of his books.

Looking back on more than five decades of writing, he is justifiably proud of his achievements, but there is no hint of the celebrity about him.

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“I have made a bob or two out of the books but I’m not, and would never want to be, a celebrity. I can still go into the pub and nobody turns round. I have complete anonymity and I like it that way.”

The look of the Expert books has never really changed from the original format way back in the late 1950s, and there’s a good reason – David Hessayon refuses to alter the way he writes and designs them.

“I do all the designs and paste them together. Nobody sees the copy until it’s finished. I never polish, I just edit and correct mistakes. People want pictures and text that tells them exactly what to do. I never talk about what I like or what I think good design is.

“If you like what you’re garden looks like, that’s fine. There is nothing personal in the books, just common sense advice.”

Will The Complete Garden Expert be yet another world best-seller? It’s bound to be. It has David Hessayon’s name on its cover, and he’s the expert.