Mary Gay Laryea (' Search; born 1 May 1945) is an English television presenter and journalist. She worked on the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

television series ''

Gardeners' World ''Gardeners' World'' is a long-running British gardening programme, first broadcast on 5 January 1968. The 2024 series is the 55th. Its first series was presented by Ken Burras and came from Oxford Botanical Gardens. Up until 2020 most of its e ...

'' with Geoff Hamilton, and on the series ''Front Gardens''.

Early life

Mary Gay Search was born on 1 May 1945 in

Hammersmith Hammersmith is a district of West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It is the administrative centre of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, and identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. It ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

to Ruth (''née'' Tapsell) and Wilfred Search. As a teenager, Search was a bystander in the capture of the

Portland spy ring The Portland spy ring was an spy ring, espionage group active in the UK between 1953 and 1961. It comprised five people who obtained classified research documents from the Admiralty Underwater Weapons Establishment (AUWE) on the Isle of Port ...

; her parents' house was used to surveil

Peter Peter may refer to: People * List of people named Peter, a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Peter (given name) ** Saint Peter (died 60s), apostle of Jesus, leader of the early Christian Church * Peter (surname), a su ...

and Helen Kroger, two members of the ring.

Career

Search started her horticultural career writing the garden column for ''

Woman A woman is an adult female human. Before adulthood, a female child or Adolescence, adolescent is referred to as a girl. Typically, women are of the female sex and inherit a pair of X chromosomes, one from each parent, and women with functi ...

'' magazine, with help from

Alan Titchmarsh Alan Fred Titchmarsh (born 2 May 1949) is an English gardener, broadcaster and writer. After working as a professional gardener and a horticultural journalist, he became a radio and television presenter and a novelist. Early career Alan Fred T ...

, who prevented her from writing "daft" things. She devised and hosted gardening shows for

BBC2 BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's second flagship channel, and it covers a wide range of subject matter, incorporating genres such as comedy, drama and ...

from 1988. She worked as gardening editor for '' Sainsbury'' magazine for 13 years as well as the ''

Radio Times ''Radio Times'' is a British weekly listings magazine devoted to television and radio programme schedules, with other features such as interviews, film reviews and lifestyle items. Founded in September 1923 by John Reith, then general manage ...

''. Search is also patron of the

British Thyroid Foundation The British Thyroid Foundation (BTF) is a UK-based, patient-led, registered charity dedicated to supporting people with thyroid Thyroid#Clinical significance, disorders and helping their families and people around them to understand the conditio ...

Personal life

Search married Anthony Laryea in 1977, and they have two sons.

Bibliography

* ''Front Gardens'' * ''Gardening from Scratch'' * ''Gardening without a garden'' * ''Delia's Kitchen Garden'', written with

Delia Smith Delia Ann Smith (born 18 June 1941) is an English cook and television presenter, known for teaching basic cookery skills in a direct style. One of the best-known celebrity chefs in British popular culture, Smith has influenced viewers to bec ...

. * ''Perfect Plants for Problem Places''

References

1945 births English gardeners English television presenters English garden writers Living people {{Horticulture-stub