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''Amateur Gardening'' is a British weekly magazine dedicated to gardening. It includes news, advice, feature articles, and celebrity columns and interviews. ==History and the early years== ''Amateur Gardening'' was founded in London in May 1884 by Shirley Hibberd, who edited it until 1887.〔Shirley Hibberd biography site. (Retrieved 20 August 2013. )〕 This makes it the oldest UK amateur gardening weekly still published today, and was Britain's best-seller in that category in 2013.〔Publisher's site. (Retrieved 20 August 2013. )〕 The magazine is published on a weekly basis.〔 Its editorial offices are in Poole, Dorset.〔Directory entry. (Retrieved 20 August 2013. )〕 At the time of the magazine's launch in 1884 there had been several other notable gardening magazines in circulation, including the ''Gardener’s Chronicle'' and ''Gardens Illustrated'', but these were tailored more for the professional gardener. ''Amateur Gardening'' is regarded as the first paper designed specifically for the amateur. The founders were two brothers – W.H. and L. Collingridge – who also produced other periodicals of the time, including the well known ''City Press''. The first issue of ''Amateur Gardening'' consisted of just 16 pages, 12 of which were devoted to editorial matter. The first editor, Shirley Hibberd, was a botanist and an academic authority on gardening. He steered the magazine down a rocky road, with articles that were considered by many to be rather too technical. He stayed in the job for just two years. The man who really established ''Amateur Gardening'' was T.W. Sanders, who was to remain editor for 40 years. Sanders knew exactly what the new generation of amateur gardeners wanted, and his style of editing attracted a wide audience. Prior to World War I a circulation of 100,000 copies per week had been achieved, but this fell off considerably during the conflict years. It was not until the mid-1920s that the magazine's circulation rose again to a healthy level. Sanders was a remarkable man as, apart from editing the magazine, he wrote a large number of books, the most important of which was ''Sanders’ Encyclopaedia of Gardening''. It was the ‘bible’ for several generations of gardeners, and is consulted even today. In 1926, the magazine suffered a severe blow when Sanders died. Fortunately the assistant editor, A.J. Macself, was able to take over as editor and he successfully steered the magazine through another 20 years – and probably the most turbulent period in its history. In 1934 Macself presided over the title's 50th birthday party, celebrating in grand style with a dinner for more than 300 people in the Connaught Rooms in London’s Mayfair. The guest list included Lord Aberconway, the then President of the Royal Horticultural Society, Sir Austen Chamberlain (a former Chancellor of the Exchequer) and Lord Riddell (a director of the Collingridge publishing firm, and a close personal friend of former Prime Minister David Lloyd George). In June 1940 the magazine left its coveted offices in the City, and moved to the prestigious Country Life Building in Covent Garden. Macself was a member of the original Hardy Plant Society, and was a renowned expert in ferns. Arguably he was even more prolific as a writer than Sanders. Between 1933 and 1939 he launched a series of gift books, as well as an annual and a calendar, besides writing numerous ordinary gardening books. He carried on editing through World War II, even though paper restrictions had dramatically limited the size of the magazine. During this period ''AG'' put its full weight behind the national Dig for Victory campaign, which encouraged everyone to grow their own fruits and vegetables. When Macself retired in 1946, he was succeeded by Arthur Hellyer, the then assistant editor. Hellyer had joined the magazine in 1929, and was both charming and knowledgeable, and another workaholic. He retired in 1967. During his years as editor he also wrote weekly for the ''Financial Times'', and regularly for ''Country Life'' and many other publications – and he wrote innumerable books. Hellyer took over at a great time on the magazine’s history. Paper restrictions were lifted during the 1950s and 60s, and the magazine enjoyed a boom, the like of which had never been seen before – or since. Circulation rose to a staggering 300,000 copies per week, and issues regularly contained some 124 pages. Remarkably, by 1967 when Hellyer retired, the magazine had been in business for 83 years, but had only seen four editors (and one of them lasted just two years). For the first hundred years of the magazine’s life it seemed to be the norm that when an editor stopped, his role was taken over by the assistant editor. This happened again when Hellyer retired as his assistant, Anthony Huxley, took on the role. He was the son of the writer Julian Huxley, and the nephew of philosopher and writer Aldous Huxley, who wrote ''Brave New World'' in 1932. Anthony was also the great grandson of Thomas Henry Huxley, a renowned biologist who defended Darwin’s theory of evolution when it was receiving considerable criticism. Huxley was a keen and knowledgeable plantsman, and although he was very supportive of amateurs generally, he was more interested in botanical integrity and ecology, particularly in the cultivation of house plants. He introduced the use of bottle gardens to the UK, and in 1956 exhibited the first ever bottle garden at the Chelsea Flower Show. He was editor for just four years; in 1971 he left to devote his time to book writing and freelance journalism. The post of editor was then taken over by assistant editor Peter Wood, who had been a student at the RHS garden at Wisley in the early 1950s, and had come to ''Amateur Gardening'' straight away when his diploma course finished. He started off in the department helping to answer the thousands of readers’ queries that arrived by post each year. During his editorship, Wood steered the magazine through the technological revolution (the introduction of computers), as well as the turbulent periods of industrial unrest in the 1970s. There was several times when ''Amateur Gardening'' was printed with blank white pages, because the printers refused to deal with pages that had been written by, or contained pictures from, people who were not members of certain unions. Wood also presided over the magazine’s centenary celebrations in 1984. With garden designer Roger Sweetinburgh, he drew up the plans for a Victorian garden at the Chelsea Flower Show – and won a Gold Medal. And there was also a centenary lunch at RHS Wisley Garden, with a ceremonial tree planting. It was a much lower-key event than the 50th birthday celebrations, but this was now the recession-hit Thatcher era. Budgets for big parties were much tighter. In 1979, Wood was instrumental in moving the magazine out of London and down to Poole in Dorset. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Amateur Gardening (magazine)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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