Dr Sarah Dewis followed a career in graphic design at the BBC and completed her doctorate at Birkbeck University of London. She contributed to The Lure of Illustration in Nineteenth Centiury Picture and Press (2009) and to the Dictionary of Nineteenth Century Journalism in Great Britain and Ireland (2009). She has lectured at the Institute of Historical Research (2014) and is the author of The Loudons and the Gardening Press (2014).

Dr Brent Elliott was Librarian of the Royal Horticultural Society from 1982 to 2007, and since 2007 has been the Society's Historian. He is the author of Victorian Gardens (1986), Treasures of the Royal Horticultural Society (1994), The Country House Garden (1995), Flora: an Illustrated History of the Garden Flower (2001), The Royal Horticultural Society: a History 1804-2004 (2004), and most recently, RHS Chelsea Flower Show: a Centenary Celebration (2013). A former editor of Garden History, he is currently editor of Occasional Papers from the RHS Lindley Library. He is a member of the Victorian Society's Buildings Committee, and for 25 years was a member of the Historic Parks and Gardens Committee/Panel of English Heritage.