Annie, who's head gardener at a largish Georgian estate eight miles away, lives within cycling distance (when she's on one of her health kicks, otherwise she roars up in her battered pick-up truck). She lives in a narrow town house with an overwhelmingly beautiful garden, formal yet cottagey, and full of the most exquisite plants, which Suze covets continually (she's also rather suspicious of Annie's methods of acquiring these treasures, especially when she visits the big house on Yellow Book day and finds most of them there as well!) Her house is rather plain, all white walls, quarry tiled floors and hand-me-down heirloom rugs, but no sense of place, as Annie hates to be indoors and will sit outside in her beloved garden (as long as she's got a glass of wine) even in the drizzle or pitch darkness. The house is always tidy, except for an inordinate number of highbrow gardening books stacked every which way, and a huge quantity of empty wine bottles. Annie is gruff and not especially welcoming, as she'd much rather be dividing her pulmonarias or attaining oblivion with a bottle of red and a copy of the latest Christopher Lloyd, and she finds it excruciating when Suze brings her children to visit, as there's nothing for them to do. They end up forming a band with the redundant wine bottles, gallons of water and some chopsticks, or else she'll go out in the garden after they've gone to find rude symbols drawn in the expensive gravel path.

Suze's garden couldn't be more different. Although she's full of grand plans and romantic schemes, it's full of battered toys, fox poo, and semi-dead plants that got on the wrong side of a football. Hardly anything survives; it's either eaten by birds or slugs, or else made into 'stews' by the children. She has no idea what any of the plants are called and doesn't even care whether they're garden plants or weeds; if Annie questions a clump of something suspiciously rural, she'll defiantly claim it's a butterfly nectar plant. Much to Annie's annoyance, however, she has the most amazingly green fingers, and she fiercely guards four incredibly prolific raised beds behind the shed where she grows a rich and colourful mix of fruit, veg and herbs. She also nurtures a deep love for the late Geoff Hamilton; has a poster of him in the kitchen and has made a little pergola in his honour in a corner of the garden, which of course, Annie scoffs at regularly.

She doesn't always get the last laugh, though. Suze finds Annie's constant quest for good taste highly amusing, probably because there's no chance she'll ever find it herself. Annie adores opera of any kind, though the more obscure the better, and often blasts it out into the garden on her treasured and highly expensive sound system. Although she turned her back on university to go to horticultural college and work her way up the gardening ranks, her parents make sure she doesn't go short, evidenced by an entire wall of neatly alphabetized classical CDs and much to Suze's amusement, one or two by Bruce Springsteen. (Annie finds a trip to Suze's madly frustrating, as Suze's irritatingly creative children once made a mobile with all her CDs and hung it outside in the garden where it got forgotten. Now all she can find is Forty Greatest Dance Hits of 1997 and Postman Pat catches the Bus.)

The Authors

The real authors are best friends in real life, and have plundered the depths of their subconscious to create Annie and Suze, with whom they identify to a lesser or greater degree, depending on the lunar phase. They are both avid gardeners, and have many years experience in coping with steep, shady conditions and dry sandy soil. By day their various jobs include garden writing, professional garden designing, researching, editing, and parenting. They are both passionate about empowering others to garden successfully.