and Lord Riddell (a director of the Collingridge publishing firm, and a personal friend of former Prime Minister David Lloyd George). In June 1940 the magazine left its offices in the City and moved to the Country Life Building in Covent Garden. Macself was a member of the original Hardy Plant Society and a renowned expert in ferns. Arguably he was even more prolific as a writer than Sanders. Between 1933 and 1939 he launched a series of gift books, as well as an annual and a calendar, besides writing numerous ordinary gardening books. He carried on editing through World War II, even though paper restrictions had dramatically limited the size of the magazine. During this period Amateur Gardening put its full weight behind the national Dig for Victory campaign, which encouraged everyone to grow their own fruits and vegetables to combat the wartime shortages. Boom When Macself retired in 1946, he was succeeded by Arthur Hellyer, hitherto the assistant editor. Hellyer had joined the magazine in 1929, and was charming, knowledgeable and hardworking. He retired in 1967. During his years as editor he also contributed weekly to the Financial Times and regularly to Country Life and many other publications – and he wrote innumerable books. Hellyer took over at a great time on the magazine's history. Paper restrictions were lifted during the 1950s and 1960s, and the magazine enjoyed a boom, the like of which had never been seen before or since. Circulation rose to a staggering 300,000 copies per week, and issues regularly contained some 124 pages. Remarkably, by 1967 when Hellyer retired, the magazine had been in business for 83 years, but had only had four editors. For the first hundred years of the magazine's life it seemed to be the norm that when an editor stopped, his role was taken over by the assistant editor. This happened again when Hellyer retired, as his assistant, Anthony Huxley, took on the role. He was the son of the writer Julian Huxley, and a nephew of the philosopher and writer Aldous Huxley, who wrote Brave New World in 1932. Anthony was also the great-grandson of Thomas Henry Huxley, a renowned biologist who defended Darwin's theory of evolution when it was receiving considerable criticism. Huxley was a keen and knowledgeable plantsman, and although he was supportive of amateurs generally, he was more interested in botanical integrity and ecology, particularly in