A weekly columnist has won a national award for gardening writing.

Val Bourne, of the Oxford Times, was named Journalist of the Year at the Garden Media Guild Awards.

Val, a former teacher and researcher, also writes for The Daily Telegraph, Gardens Illustrated, The RHS Garden Magazine and Amateur Gardening.

The grandmother-of-four, who lives with her partner in Cold Aston, Gloucestershire, has been involved in journalism since 1995.

Val, pictured left, said: “When I started writing for The Oxford Times I was not very well known.

“Before than I had been a teacher and a vegetable researcher, but I became fed up of reading so many things that were wrong in articles about plants.

“My impetus was to get involved because I knew the subject.”