Percy Izzard

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Percy William David Izzard OBE (September 1877 – 17 June 1968) was the well-known gardening correspondent on the Daily Mail newspaper and author of several books on gardening.

Life and works[edit]

Percy Izzard was the first regular agricultural and horticultural correspondent in the popular press and wrote for the Daily Mail for a period of 50 years.[1] He was noted for his book Homeland: A Year of Country Days, a collection of 365 of his "Country Diary" columns from the Daily Mail, with black-and-white illustrations by his wife Florence Louise Izzard and Will G. Mein.[2][3][4] He was claimed by his son, the writer Ralph Izzard, to have been the inspiration for William Boot in the Evelyn Waugh novel "Scoop".[5] He was an authority on roses and the Percy Izzard rose was named for him.[6]

Notable works[edit]

  • Homeland: A Year of Country Days (1918)
  • Daily Mail Garden Plans (1929)
  • Breeds of British Poultry (1933)
  • Grow it Yourself: Daily Mail Practical Instruction Book on Food from the Garden in War-Time (1940)

References[edit]

  1. ^ Obituary in Gardeners Chronicle & New Horticulturist, Vol.153, 1968
  2. ^ Review in Nature, Vol. 102, 1918, p.143
  3. ^ Review in The Bookman, Vol.55, 1918 p.37
  4. ^ Review in The Near East, Vol. 15, 1919, p.51
  5. ^ "Obituary: Ralph Izzard". The Independent. 14 December 1992. Archived from the original on 25 May 2022.
  6. ^ Bulletin of the Garden Club of America, 1959, p.14