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Alan Titchmarsh, MBE (born 2 May 1949 ) is a presenter of a number of Gardening programmes on UK Television . He was awarded an MBE in the New Year's Honours List of 1999 for his services to Horticulture and Broadcasting . Alan was born in Ilkley , Yorkshire , England. He has appeared in an advert for the Yorkshire Tourist Board in a series which included contributions from other Yorkshire-born celebrities including Brian Blessed , Melanie Brown , Darren Gough and Brian Turner . After gaining a City and Guilds in Horticulture, Alan went on to study at Oaklands in Hertfordshire for the National Certificate in Horticulture. He then gained the Kew Diploma after training at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew . He worked as a horticultural journalist for a number of publications, including Amateur Gardening (magazine) , where he was the deputy editor. He has written over 30 gardening books and four Novel s — one of which won an award for the "worst sex scene". His Autobiography , ''Trowel and Error'' (ISBN 0340765429) was published in 2002 . He was a long-standing presenter of the BBC 's lunchtime magazine programme, Pebble Mill At One . He also provides the narration and voice for some of the characters for the CBeebies cartoon '' Gordon The Garden Gnome ''. Between 1996 and 2002 , Alan hosted the popular show '' Gardeners' World ''. He presented '' Ground Force '', a garden redesign program, between 1997 and 2002 , where, in one episode, he worked on Nelson Mandela 's garden. He won his first Gold Medal at the Chelsea Flower Show in 1985 for a country kitchen garden design. His waxwork was added to Madame Tussauds in 2000 . Alan is a Christian . In an interview with The Lady magazine, Alan said " Gardening is actually a very Religious experience, as well as being a sensual one. I go to Church every Sunday and it seems to me that there is a very strong link between Religion and Plants which come up, year after year. Gardening is also Sensual because you feel at one with everyone else." Alan presented the long-running BBC series '' Songs Of Praise '' for several years, including programmes from such widely spaced locations as Pershore , Worcestershire ; Crewkerne , Somerset and New York . He became Patron of Seeds For Africa in May 1999. Seeds for Africa encourages Sustainable vegetable gardening. The Charity provides Community groups with the Tools , Seeds and Training they require to start their own vegetable Gardens . This includes providing water Installation and preparing the land. Alan lives in Hampshire and is married to Alison, with whom he has two daughters: Polly and Camilla. EXTERNAL LINKS |
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