Charles Quest-Ritson

Quest-Ritson was born on 20 June 1947 in Portsmouth, the eldest son of Gerald Ritson, a lieutenant in the Royal Marines, and Margaret Quest Thomson. He is the grandson of the mining engineer Professor John Ritson and the great-great-grandson of Thomas Alexander Dickson, the Liberal and Irish Nationalist MP. {{citation needed|date=November 2022}}

He attended Stoke House preparatory school in Seaford, Sussex and won gardening prizes there from the age of nine. He developed his skills in his grandparents' ten-acre garden; and his father's garden, designed by Gertrude Jekyll. He was privately educated at Winchester College, where his housemaster was Dr Peter Partner, the historian of late-mediaeval Italy. He graduated in 1969 with a degree in history from the University of Warwick, where his tutor was Professor Sir John Rigby Hale.The English Garden: A Social History, author biography He began his professional life as a tax lawyer. He married Brigid and the couple had two daughters and a son.Winning ways of the passionate plantsman, Sunday Times, 13 September 1992[https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?p=BIC&u=wikipedia&id=GALE|H1000153968&v=2.1&it=r&sid=bookmark-BIC&asid=12366ae6 "Charles Quest-Ritson"]. Gale Literature: Contemporary Authors, Gale, 2004. Gale In Context: Biography, He has British and Irish nationality.

The couple were partners in the Corsley Mill Nurseries (1983-1993), propagating own root roses.[https://www.hoepli.it/libro/encyclopedia-of-roses---the-royal-horticultural-society-/9781405373852.html hoepli.it] From 2004 to 2020 the couple owned 12 acres of woodland and orchards in on the Cherbourg Peninsula, Normandy, in northern France. His garden contained over 1000 roses.[https://www.countrylife.co.uk/gardens/gardening-tips/charles-quest-ritson-moving-back-to-an-english-country-garden-has-been-a-joy-but-we-do-miss-the-cheese-216673 Country Life, " Charles Quest-Ritson"] 5 July 2020 They then moved back to England; their home near Salisbury has two acres of gardens on chalk. He is fluent in five languages and has specialised in writing about gardens across the world.{{Cite web|title=Charles Quest-Ritson Books {{!}} World of Books|url=https://www.wob.com/en-gb/books/author/charles-quest-ritson|access-date=2022-02-06|website=www.wob.com}}

He regularly authors expert guides for the Royal Horticultural Society. The RHS Encyclopaedia of Roses (2003) in Italian translation, won the literary Grinzane Cavour Prize (2006). His first published horticultural book was The English Garden Abroad (1992) and he has written more than ten further guides over the following thirty years. He was a director of the Royal National Rose Society (extant 1876-2017), founder of the Historic Roses Group and a fellow of the Linnaean Society. He is also a regular columnist for Country Life magazine.

• RHS Encyclopedia of Roses (2011)
• The English Garden: A Social History (2010)
• Ninfa (2009)
• RHS Garden Finders
• Olive Oil (2004)
• Climbing Roses of the World (2003)
• American Rose Society Encyclopedia of Roses: the Definitive A-Z Guide (2003)
• The English Garden (2001)
• The Royal Horticultural Society Gardener's Handbook (1999)
• Gardens of Germany (also all the photographs) (1998)
• Garden Lover's Guide to Germany (1998)
• Gardens of Europe
• Country Gardens (1998)
• The English Garden Abroad (1992)

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Category:Living people

Category:1947 births

Category:Alumni of the University of Warwick

Category:Country Life (magazine) people

Category:English gardeners

Category:English garden writers

Category:English horticulturists

Category:English people of Irish descent

Category:English rose horticulturists

Category:People educated at Winchester College

Category:Royal Horticultural Society

Category:Writers from Portsmouth

Category:Writers from Wiltshire