oh gosh, not Alan Titchmarch

[Flummery]

It's hard to prove a negative!

[Geo]

Yay for the Titchmeister! At least he has a personality to have a cult around!

Geo..

[chrispy]

I can't read this without putting my oar in, but i'm afraid Mr Tichmarsh really grates with me. I think he took GW away from proper gardening, and straight into the arms of the Garden centres

[bluemoon]

Well also being of a certain age and also from Yorkshire, I have to say that I'm indifferent to him, personality-wise. He certainly won't make me stop being an avid reader of the mag. I did once cancel one magazine as the only contributor who wrote anything about veg gardening was seriously getting on my nerves (I'd taken the mag since 1975 and this was about 2004 so, daft as it sounds, it was a big decision) It was OK though because shortly afterwards I discovered issue 1 of GYO. Imagine my horror then when later this same writer began to contribute to my new favourite mag. I almost stopped buying it, there's little point in reading something, being inspired then being told she considers that you can only grow it successfully in Devon. Fortunately she tones the Devon stuff down for GYO and if she does go on I just don't read that bit (and I have to admit that hers is always the bit I leave until last and only read it grudgingly). It would have been a terrible loss to me to lose the mag altogether though, just for the sake of one writer, no matter how annoying that writer might be. If you don't like Alan, don't read him he's only a small part of the whole.

[Paulottie]

Absolute class photo Geo

Certainly looks like a syrup in that shot.

Anyhow...toupé or not toupé is not the question. I'm not sure you can wholly blame Alan for the overpriced naff stuff that some people buy from gardencenters to substitute for taste, work and imagination in their gardens.

[SarzWix]

I like him, I've got his How To Be a Gardener book and it's brilliant for explanations of all the basics. I can happily live without his novels, chat show and radio programme but I have no problem with reading his gardening stuff.

And if he does have a wig, I can't see how he could stop it coming out - he can't be paying everyone on the entire WWW and that's the only way he could stop it coming up on Google, they're only a search engine after all, not a publisher...

[FionaH]

I love his gardening stuff, its simple and easy to understand, thats a must for me

[janeyo]

I don't think it's a wig, surely with all the windy loactions he's been in it would have ruffled, moved or come off! Or got stuck in a bush when he was pruning or some such other.

[bluemoon]

Or got stuck in a bush when he was pruning or some such other.

PMSL! I'd pay to watch that, what a great vision it conjures up.

[cupcake]

I read his " Nobbut a lad" book a while ago. As I went to school in Ilkley, at about the same time as AT (tho I went to the "other" school ie the grammar) it brought back wonderful nostalgic memories of both Ilkley, and the lifestyle we were brought up in. Happy days!

[Tam]

He left gardening for quite a few years to be become a "TV Personality" and was in a number of quite awful daytime shows. I'm afraid I'm in the can't stand him brigade, although he did win some competition for the poorest pornographic bit of writing in one of his books.

[StephenH]

Who's for Monty Don ???

Who's for Carol Klein? She's my favourite TV gardener at the moment.

[bluemoon]

You mean Carol 'let's all grow cabbages in huge individual pots, using bought in compost so they cost twice as much as a supermarket one' Klein? Think I'll pass.

[Alison]

No, Stephen is thinking of Carol 'buy a single plant, split it into 4 and take 1,000,000 cuttings from it all for the price of one plant' Klein. Excellent value for money.

[blindsilksheet]

haha this is brilliant. I think he must have a marmite personality ! :-)
Personally I remain unconvinced.