Katherine Swift lives at the Dower House, Morville Hall, in Shropshire. She worked as a rare-book librarian in Oxford and Dublin before becoming a full-time gardener and writer in 1988. She was for four years gardening columnist of The Times, and has written widely in the gardening press, including an acclaimed series on the gardens and landscapes of Orkeny for Hortus. She is the author of Pergolas, Arbours and Arches: Their History and How to Make Them (with Paul Edwards and Jessica Smith) and Jim Partridge (with Alison Britton).