David G. Hessayon, who was "widely recognized as the world's bestselling gardening writer, although many people outside Britain may not recognize his name," died January 16, the New York Times reported. He was 96. In his country, Hessayon "was the Agatha Christie" of the gardening genre, and like "Christie's whodunits, Dr. Hessayon's books followed a strict formula."
Beginning with Be Your Own Gardening Expert (1959), which sold six million copies, Hessayon published about 60 books, not including revised editions. His work "was descriptive, prescriptive, comprehensive, encyclopedic and exhaustive, written in a no-nonsense tone that some called bossy," the Times noted.
The Guardian once reported that the look of his books, which he designed himself, could be best characterized as "1980 East German tourist brochure," but without the exuberance.
His books include Be Your Own House Plant Expert (1960); The New Flower Expert (1999); The Complete Garden Expert (2012); The Indoor Plant & Flower Expert (2013); and The New Fruit Expert (2015).
"The real secret of my work is that people feel at ease," he once said of his books. "I'm writing for the man in the semidetached."
By 2008, it was estimated that half of the households in Britain had at least one of his books. At his death, sales had exceeded 50 million copies. "But for most of his career, he had a day job as an executive at Pan Britannica Industries, a manufacturer of garden and agricultural chemicals," the Times wrote.
Hessayon studied botany and chemistry at the University of Leeds and earned a Ph.D. in soil ecology at the University of Manchester in 1954. He joined Pan Britannica the following year, and remained with the company until his retirement in 1993. When he initially had an idea for a gardening manual in the late 1950s, he asked his company to publish it, offering to pay for the eventual bestseller himself if it didn't sell.
In 2007, Hessayon was named an Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire. In 2013, he announced that he would produce no more gardening guides: "You should give up while you still remember what your name is."