The Amazing Lady P with Sonja Waites and Shane Connolly
film
The author and Lady Pulbrook in the P&G shop in Sloane Street, from which arrangements were sent and where many famous clients came to buy flowers.
Sonja Waites launches her book The Amazing Lady P: The Inspiring Story of Pulbrook & Gould and their English-grown Flowers. Watch Sonja in conversation with Shane Connolly to recall the extraordinary success of Pulbrook & Gould, one of London’s most celebrated floral decorators, drawing on recollections from former staff, clients, and the suppliers of their distinctive English-grown flowers.
Founded in the 1950s by society hostess Susan, Lady Pulbrook and her Constance Spry-trained partner Rosamund Gould, the firm quickly became the leading choice for Society events: weddings, funerals, balls and private parties, with a client list that included the Royal Family. As passionate gardeners, their signature natural style drew on flowers sourced from country-house contacts and English growers at Covent Garden Market.
Sonja (Lady Pulbrook’s sister-in-law) became a partner when Rosamund Gould retired in 1974. Her book offers a unique insight into running a flower business in an era when individual style truly mattered, and when women founding and leading a celebrated enterprise of this kind was still a rare achievement.
