Started out as a botanist, though one always reading way off-topic.  After various university degrees (have a doctorate in botany), started writing about gardens - of which I've had several, always centred around interesting old houses.  I've had columns in various UK national papers, including the Sunday Times.  I still write occasionally for that and for the Guardian. After twelve books and a thousand articles, I felt like a change.  Then, on a hot night in Morocco, my Narrator arrived.  She turned out to be interested in a lot of the research I'd done for DANGEROUS GARDEN (Harvard University Press), but her voice had rather the accent of Muriel Spark, and a tinge of Virginia Woolf.  The plot has the darkness and humour of ... well, you decide on LOBSTER NIGHTS.  Poisons.  Morocco.  London.  New York.  A school for wicked women.  The Sisterhood.  Fortune telling.  Murder.  And more. My agent thought : What a novel idea!  I loved the concept and the storyline.  How wickedly amusing and delightful – reminds me of the old Ealing Studios movies where you cannot but love the murderers because they’re all so likeable and funny….  However, do I read it right that you kill The Narrative off in the end? Rather a shame because it’ll be great to have the opportunity of making a series of this character and the Sisterhood, maybe even to become murderers for good causes? If you'd like to see the synopsis, and a few chapters, go to http://lobsternights.wordpress.com I now garden in London, Lincolnshire and the Scottish borders. david-stuart.co.uk