Nestled amongst the tulips and dahlias, perfectly at home between the forget-me-knots, wallflowers and bellis, Alan Titchmarsh has found the perfect setting for his latest author’s talk in the gardens at Chenies Manor.

“It’s been a long time since I was last there, about 20 years,“ says Alan, who will be attending a literary lunch there set up by the Chorleywood Bookshop to talk about his new book, Bring Me Home.

“I wonder how much it’s changed since then? The gardens were pretty good back then so they must be even better now.“

Alan is known to millions through the popular BBC TV programmes British Isles: A Natural History, How to Be a Gardener, Ground Force, and Gardeners’ World.

He’s twice been named Gardening Writer of the Year and for four successive years was voted Television Personality of the Year by the Garden Writers’ Guild. In 2004, he received their Lifetime Achievement Award. He now has his own daytime TV show on ITV, The Alan Titchmarsh Show, and writes regular columns for national newspapers and magazines.

He’s written more than 40 gardening books, but it’s his seven best-selling novels, which have all made the Sunday Times’ bestseller list, which he will be focusing on when he comes to Chenies.

Bring Me Home tells the story of Charlie Stuart, who holds his annual summer party in his castle on a Scottish loch. Everything is going well, as it always does, until the past catches up with him and his father’s legacy becomes all too real – in the worst of ways.

“My novels always have a very strong sense of place,“ says Alan, 64, who was born in Ilkley in Yorkshire and has lived in Hampshire for the past 30 years, “they’re always set somewhere that I know and generally that I’m fond of.

“I’ve been to every county in Britain – backwards, top-to-toe, left to right. When I talk about a place, I automatically think of its countryside, it’s the terrain I remember as much as the cities or whatever. So when I think of Lincolnshire, I’m on the fens.“

What does Alan think of when he talks about Hertfordshire?

“I think ‘that’s where I went to college’!“ he laughs. “It was Hertfordshire College of Agriculture and Horticulture then, on Hatfield Road in St Albans. I was there for a year in 1968, doing my national certificate, before I went off to Kew.

“I had a good time there, and learnt a lot. I remember weird things like the chariot race in town. I can’t remember where we pulled them, whether it was to or from St Albans. And I used to do cross-country running there as well – don’t ask me where, 40-odd years is a long time ago!“

  • Alan Titchmarsh will be at Chenies Manor, Chenies, Bucks on Monday, March 31 from 12.15pm. Details: 01923 283566, chorleywoodbookshop.co.uk