News
Key dates for your diary
The 2008 Awards timeline throws up the following key dates which you may want to note:
August 31: Subs must be current to obtain tickets at member rate
September 5: Deadline for Award entries
November 14: Last date for Awards Lunch ticket bookings
November 20: The Awards Lunch at The Royal Lancaster
Lunch tickets: new credit card facility
Tickets for the 2008 Awards Lunch at the Royal Lancaster Hotel in London on November 20 are available now – with the facility to pay by debit/credit card if you wish. Inclusive of a pre-lunch glass of Champagne, a splendid three-course meal with wine and afternoon tea, tickets cost £72 each for Full Members of the Guild, £110 for Associate Members or £135 for non-members.
To book, please download the Awards Lunch Ticket Booking Form PDF (1.4Mb), fill it out on-screen, save it and e-mail it to the address on the form. Please make a note of the password – katepwa – which protects the completed form in transit. If paying by cheque, you will need to print out the completed form and post it back to the Guild with your cheque.
New Awards: could they be for you?
A record 19 Awards will be contested this year – including three new ones which extend the scope of the Awards scheme to new disciplines and media.
The News Story of the Year Award celebrates a traditional journalistic expertise and extends to newspapers and magazines whether national or regional, trade or consumer.
We are also introducing an award for the journalist who has discovered or chronicled the best Young Gardener Initiative since October 2006. This award encourages the media to seek out and promote the best sustainable community or education project that develops and nurtures horticultural talent, nationally or locally.
And to better celebrate the diversity of the medium, the Radio Broadcast of the Year Award will now have two winners – one for national radio and another for regional radio.
Entry forms go interactive
The Guild has introduced new-style digital entry forms this year. Now published as interactive PDF documents, one per Award category group, the forms can be downloaded here (see right) and filled out on-screen – a facility which has been often requested.
Who has had a lifetime of achievement?
This special Award, decided by a poll of Guild members, recognises outstanding achievement in the fields of horticultural writing, journalism, broadcasting, photography and lecturing. To nominate a potential honoree, members can fill in the online form here. Past winners – Fred Whitsey, Peter Seabrook, Rosemary Verey, Graham Stuart-Thomas, Christopher Lloyd, Beth Chatto, Penelope Hobhouse, Geoff Amos, Jerry Harpur, Roy Lancaster, Joy Larkcom, Alan Titchmarsh, David Hessayon, Geoffrey Smith and Ken Muir – are ineligible.
Any other business..?
The Guild's AGM will be held at the Royal Lancaster Hotel on November 20, just before the Awards Lunch reception. All members are urged to attend at 10.45am and take this opportunity to influence the shape and direction of the Guild.
