An Almost Impossible Thing

This book was born out of a remarkable discovery by the author: the letters of a gardener denied a scholarship by the Royal Horticultural Society on the grounds of her being a woman. Propelled by this collection of letters, Fiona Davidson set out to research the other female pioneers who fought to create a space for women in professional gardening. This book follows six extraordinary women, working in gardens in the years before WW1, thus against a backdrop of struggle for universal suffrage and the British Empire at the height of its powers.