Sally Francis spent her childhood free-range, stomping about salt marshes and water meadows, playing in chalk streams, and running footloose on her parents’ smallholding in Norfolk. ‘We grew up with chickens and geese, eating fruit and vegetables from the kitchen garden. The owners of the surrounding fields and wetlands were family members, and never minded my sister and I straying onto their land. We stumbled across all sorts, including flowers, such as sea lavender and marsh orchids, which captivated me.’
Sally went on to study botany at Oxford, followed by a DPhil in plant pathology, conducting research into how to grow healthy crops with no artificial sprays. She enjoyed the ‘dreaming spires’. ‘It was such a nurturing environment for learning; so many wonderful libraries.’ After her studies, she