Mary Keen
Mary is a writer, lecturer and internationally celebrated garden designer. Her daughter, the poet Alice Oswald, has recorded five of her poems — ‘Snowdrop’, ‘Narcissus’, ‘Rambling Rose’, ‘Primrose’, ‘Yellow Iris’ — from her collection Weeds and Wildflowers, for Mary to play between talking about raising more rarified versions of the same flowers, in a performance entitled ‘Growing Alice Oswald’s Flowers (Not the Weeds)’.
Mary has a monthly column in the Telegraph and is a regular contributor to many newspapers and gardening magazines, both here and abroad. Her own garden, which is regularly open to groups from all over the world, remains her favourite project. She has written five books including Creating A Garden.
Alice’s book, Weeds and Wild Flowers (2009), illustrated by Jessica Greenman, was shortlisted for the 2009 T. S. Eliot Prize, and was also winner of the inaugural Ted Hughes Award.
