Linden Hawthorne originally trained as a biology teacher but changed career and took a Higher National Diploma in Horticulture.  She has contributed sections to a number of the Dorling Kindersley encyclopedias and worked with Chris Brickell to standardize the cultivation section in the latest edition of the A-Z Encyclopedia of Garden Plants. At present she is working as a Consultant to Sir Richard Storey (Chairman of Hillier's Arboretum) on the renovation of a large estate in northeastern England.