James Wong (ethnobotanist)

James Alexander L. S. Wong (born 26 May 1981) is a British ethnobotanist, television presenter and garden designer.[1] He is best known for presenting the award-winning series Grow Your Own Drugs and the BBC and PBS series Secrets of Your Food, as well as being a panelist on the Radio 4 series Gardeners' Question Time.

James Wong
Born (1981-05-26) 26 May 1981
Smithfield, London, England
Occupation(s)Ethnobotanist, television presenter, garden designer

Early life

Born at St Bartholomew's Hospital[2] in the City of London to a Bornean father and a Welsh mother from Newport, Wong was brought up in Singapore and Malaysia. Upon being awarded an academic scholarship, he returned to the UK in 1999 to study at the University of Bath, where he took a BSc in Business Administration.[3] He then trained at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and the University of Kent,[4] gaining a Master of Science degree in ethnobotany, graduating with distinction.

Career

At the age of 27, Wong became the presenter of his own television series Grow Your Own Drugs. The award-winning BBC Two series demonstrates a number of natural remedies sourced from plants,[5] and soon became the highest-rated gardening series on UK television. The show ran for two series, as well as a one-off Christmas special, Grow Your Own Christmas. Wong's first two books that tied-in with each series of the television show became international best-sellers, with his third title Homegrown Revolution becoming the fastest selling gardening book in UK history.[6]

Wong is also a regular reporter on the hit BBC One rural affairs series Countryfile since its reformatting in April 2009, as well as being a regular panellist on BBC Radio 4's Gardeners' Question Time, and presenter of the Channel NewsAsia series Expensive Eats.

In his capacity as a garden designer, he has become a four-time Royal Horticultural Society medal winner[7] for gardens he co-designed through the design studio he co-founded, Amphibian Designs, at the Chelsea Flower Show and the Hampton Court Palace Flower Show. In his first garden at the 2004 Hampton Court Palace Flower Show, he became the youngest-ever medal-winning designer at the event, and is currently the youngest five-time RHS medal winner.[8]

Wong has designed an Ethnobotanical Garden for the University of Kent, where he is a guest lecturer.[5]

His research has taken him to highland Ecuador, as well as to China and Java.

In 2013 and 2014, he presented several episodes of Great British Garden Revival, winning Best Television Programme of the Year at the 2014 Garden Media Awards.

In September 2015, Wong started writing a weekly column in The Observer;[9] in February 2023 he announced that he had resigned from the column, after writing to the editorial department and tweeting to describe as "completely unacceptable"[10] a column by Catherine Bennett whose headline likened politicians who support trans rights to alleged sex trafficker Andrew Tate in the context of the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill and which mentioned Rosie Duffield, Joanna Cherry and Miriam Cates by name, criticising comments by Lloyd Russell-Moyle and Ben Bradshaw.[11]

Personal life

Wong lives in central London.[12] Wong retains a slight southern Welsh accent from his mother.[13]

Filmography
Year Title Role Episodes
2008 Fossil Detectives Co-presenter
Gardeners' World Guest presenter
2009–2013 Grow Your Own Drugs Presenter 2 series plus a Christmas special
2009–2015 Countryfile Co-presenter
2010 James Wong and the Malaysian Garden Presenter
2011 The Fabulous Mrs Beeton Co-Presenter
2012 Our Food Co-presenter
The People's Rainforest Co-Presenter
2013 Expensive Eats Co-presenter
2014–2015 Great British Garden Revival Co-presenter
2015 BBC Chelsea Flower Show Coverage Co-presenter
2017 The Secrets of Your Food Co-presenter
Springwatch Co-presenter "Springwatch in Japan: Cherry Blossom Time"
2019 Heston's Marvellous Menu: Back to the Noughties Guest
2021 Nature and Us: A History through Art Co-presenter

Bibliography
  • Wong, James (2009). Grow Your Own Drugs. HarperCollins.
  • Wong, James (2010). Grow Your Own Drugs – A Year with James Wong. HarperCollins.
  • Wong, James (2012). James Wong's Homegrown Revolution. Weidenfeld & Nicolson.
  • Wong, James (2015). Grow For Flavour. Octopus Publishing Group.
  • Wong, James (2017). How to Eat Better. Octopus Publishing Group.

References
  1. "New Survey Reveals Three Quarters of Britons Eat Sprouts - LONDON, December 15 /PR Newswire UK/". LONDON: Prnewswire.co.uk. 14 December 2006. Retrieved 20 May 2015.
  2. James Wong (16 March 2021). "Q 'Which hospital?' A 'St Barts'". Retrieved 3 June 2022 – via Twitter.
  3. "Interview: James Wong, ethnobotanist and TV presenter, Countryfile and Grow Your Own Drugs".
  4. "Ethnobotany - MSC".
  5. Kavanagh, Marianne (27 February 2009). "Grow your own drugs with James Wong". The Daily Telegraph. London. Archived from the original on 28 February 2009. Retrieved 5 May 2010.
  6. Neill, Graeme (2 November 2009). "Amazon.co.uk reveals top 100 titles for 2009". The Bookseller. Archived from the original on 20 June 2010. Retrieved 25 February 2023.
  7. "'The Burgbad Sanctuary' at The RHS Hampton Court Palace Flower Show 2008". Retrieved 16 March 2009.
  8. "Chelsea Flower show winners announced". Country Life. 25 May 2010. Retrieved 20 May 2015.
  9. "James Wong". The Guardian. Retrieved 25 February 2023.
  10. Wong, James [@BotanyGeek] (29 January 2023). "As a columnist at the Observer, I have written to them to express my shock. This is completely unacceptable" (Tweet). Archived from the original on 25 February 2023. Retrieved 25 February 2023 – via Twitter.
  11. Bennett, Catherine (28 January 2023). "Forget Andrew Tate – what about the host of misogynists in Labour's ranks?". The Observer. Retrieved 25 February 2023.
  12. "Gardens: James Wong – ripe for a change". TheGuardian.com. 25 October 2013.
  13. "Grow Your Own Drugs". Lynne Allbutt. 8 January 2010. Retrieved 20 May 2015.
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