Talk:Monty Don

Who Do You Think You Are?
The episode of Who Do You Think You Are? about Monty Don that aired last night showed very poor research and also missed a trick. At the end of the programme it said that John Mitchell Keiller (1851-1899)'s 9 year old son never took an interest in the company. This is incorrect. The 9 year old son was Alexander Keiller (1889-1955), and a recent biography of him (A Zest for Life: The Story of Alexander Keiller by Lynda J Murray, 1999) states:

"Towards the end of 1910, on his twenty-first birthday, Keiller came into his inheritance and became actively involved in the family business. Initially he declined the offer of becoming a Director, preferring to take a back seat and allow his [maternal] uncle, John Keiller Grieg, to represent him on at Board meetings.  In 1911 Keiller allocated enough shares in the company to his uncle to allow him to become a Director as Keiller's representative.  He also began to accumulate yet further shares for himself.  In order to assist the company during a temporary cashflow difficulty he offered to buy up shares in one of the overseas branches at Tangermunde, near Berlin in Germany, thus increasing his stockholding.  His involvement in the business increased marginally, with the occasional attendance of Annual Directors Board Meetings, which seemed to have been convened most often to award Directors salaries and bonuses. Quite often though, owing to these meetings being convened in the winter months, there was a letter of apology from Keiller at St Moritz, where he was obviously trying to escape the pressures of executive stress." (page 13)

"Keiller's association with the family business had not diminshed during the War Years, and another time of change for him was 1918. In March of that year, he elected to sell all of his shares in the company, including those inherited from his father, and also the 100 held by his uncle, John Keiller Grieg.  These shares were bought up in the main by other Directors of the company, as well as outsiders.  Thus his involvement with the family business ceased, and with the considerable fortune there accrued, he was free to do as he chose." (page 21)

Using the wealth from his inheritance, Keiller went on to buy and excavate both Windmill Hill near Avebury and the site of Avebury itself, now a World Heritage Site and one of the finest megalithic sites in Europe.

What poor research by the BBC and how they missed a trick - a section on Alexander Keiller would have been fascinating. 86.138.45.200 (talk) 09:41, 10 August 2010 (UTC)


 * The book includes a family tree, which goes as far back as Janet Keiller, showing William Keiller, Monty Don's great grandfather, and William's older brother Alexander Riddoch Keiller, the father of John Mitchell Keiller and grandfather of Alexander Keiller. 86.138.45.200 (talk) 09:51, 10 August 2010 (UTC)


 * Interesting. Does this affect the article? If it does, it might be best to sign in and comment. Best wishes Spanglej (talk) 10:56, 10 August 2010 (UTC)

Tomorrow's World
Didn't Monty also present Tomorrow's World? Worth a mention, surely? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.162.65.23 (talk) 18:56, 23 May 2013 (UTC)
 * Yes, he's listed at Tomorrow's World as presenter 1994-95. So should certainly be added. Martinevans123 (talk) 20:14, 23 May 2013 (UTC)

External links modified
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Books list
It appears "Fork to Fork" was originally published to coincide with the 1999 TV series of the same name, but published in the USA as "From the Garden to the Table: Growing, Cooking, and Eating Your Own Foods" with necessary modifications (Courgette to Zucchini, Broad Beans to Fava Beans etc). It was then republished in 2006.

I think the book list should be first publication so I've deleted the 2006 reference and moved Fork to Fork to 1999 so it is correct chronologically.

Added a note about the USA version. Perhaps this should be removed also? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 195.89.201.254 (talk) 14:18, 8 February 2016 (UTC)

TV work
I've added Big Dreams Small Spaces to the career section. It's getting a bit sprawling, I wonder if TV work should be a chronological bulleted list? Although there are details like the controversy with Chelsesa appointment etc that fit into the career narrative

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Monty Don's Great Escape
Should not the section on Monty Don's career include the fact that he used to present a television programme called "Monty Don's Great Escape"?Vorbee (talk) 19:15, 1 July 2017 (UTC)


 * You mean Monty Halls? Not sure they're actually related. Martinevans123 (talk) 20:00, 1 July 2017 (UTC)

Sorry - my mistake, I was confusing Monty Halls with Monty Don there.Vorbee (talk) 15:44, 2 July 2017 (UTC)


 * Don't worry, it's easily done. -- M. E. Clifton James123 (talk) 16:27, 2 July 2017 (UTC)

Twin sister
What happened after the car crash - did she recover fully, or what? 2A00:23C0:F502:FC00:C96D:72C6:2146:F104 (talk) 20:14, 4 August 2017 (UTC)
 * The Daily Mail tells us that Alison was paralysed and blinded: . But we can't use that newspaper as a source. Martinevans123 (talk) 22:18, 4 August 2017 (UTC)

Soil Association
This interview says he stepped down from the soil association presidency

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/dec/11/monty-don-tim-adams-dogs-gardening

whereas his personal website https://montydon.com/good-causes/

Says he is president.

Anyone shed any light?
 * This Radio Times interview talks about his 'recent seven-year tenure' as president of the SA in the past tense. JezGrove (talk) 16:55, 1 December 2017 (UTC)

External links modified (January 2018)
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Criticism of Chelsea
I added a link which showed Monty Don's criticism of the Chelsea Flower Show, which I felt added to the fact that his appointment to the BBC coverage was controversial which has been dismissed as 'not being from a reliable source thus:"

"Please do not add or significantly change content without citing verifiable and reliable sources, as you did with this edit to Monty Don. Before making any potentially controversial edits, it is recommended that you discuss them first on the article's talk page. Please review the guidelines at Wikipedia:Citing sources and take this opportunity to add references to the article. Jim1138 (talk) 10:04, 28 June 2018 (UTC)"

I find this a little unbelievable as the reference link is to an article BY MONTY DON HIMSELF! https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2001/may/20/gardens1

In a comment piece written for The Guardian (not a banned publication on wikipedia, as far as I know). Was this edit made to simply protect Monty Don's reputation? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 195.89.201.254 (talk) 14:05, 29 June 2018 (UTC)


 * What you did was add a comment from 2001 which clearly had no relevance to him being a presenter in 2014, so you really need 2014 coverage to show it was part of the so called controversy. I have also removed the controversy mention as a winge by Titchmarsh cant really be considered a controversy. MilborneOne (talk) 14:17, 29 June 2018 (UTC)


 * Wholly agree. Thanks. Alan who? Martinevans123 (talk) 14:18, 29 June 2018 (UTC)

I appreciate the clarification that it wasn't due to an 'unreliable source' (i.e. it was written by Monty himself) and am persuaded that Monty's viewpoint could have changed over time. I suppose when I read that old Monty Column (one of a few where he has a pop at Chelsea, Sarah Don also does in the Jewel Garden) I was a bit surprised at his rather strong views.

The edit re Alan's whinge though - this has been on the page for a while (see history) and I think around Monty's career there does need to be something about people being snobby about his credentials. In the Mail article (I think the one referenced -http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/gardening/article-2629146/If-people-snotty-I-just-think-life-Monty-tells-hoot-people-think.html) there's this quote:

"While Monty's appointment has pleased the millions of fans who adore his many gardening shows and columns in this magazine, there's a section of the horticultural community who aren't happy. They still regard him as an amateur despite his decades in the business. Alan, who's an ambassador for the Royal Horticultural Society and has certificates from the Hertfordshire College of Agriculture and Horticulture and Kew Gardens, is one of them. Monty, who has no qualifications in gardening, is one of us. Fortunately Monty, 58, has had enough brickbats thrown at him in his long career to be able to laugh them off. "

Which - sort of captures it, although I know we're not allowed to reference the Daily Mail. There's a sort of derisory tone that MD is 'just a jeweller what does he know" - as I remember it - was thrown about when he was appointed to head up GW, then again at when he was put in to anchor Chelsea.

Anyway, I shan't get into an edit war and I apologise if my edits weren't up to scratch. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 195.89.201.254 (talk) 12:15, 3 July 2018 (UTC)

ps. A non Daily Mail write up of the story here https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2014/may/13/alan-titchmarsh-hurt-by-bbc-chelsea-flower-show-decision — Preceding unsigned comment added by 195.89.201.254 (talk) 13:56, 3 July 2018 (UTC)

Gosh, doesn't this exchange capture the pomposity and high-handiness of some editors. "What you did was this..." "I've decided this".... — Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.115.54.204 (talk) 11:23, 9 February 2022 (UTC)

Biography
Monty released some interesting pictures of his old gardens (Ufton Road and The Hanburies) on instagram - I included a couple of sentences about them in the personal life section. I wonder if the Early Life/Personal Life sections needs to be consolidated into a biography section? They are a bit of a mish-mash at the moment.

Suggested sources
Sorry, I know there's a talk page template for this, but I can't remember its name. CapnZapp (talk) 08:01, 9 June 2020 (UTC)
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