Joan Morgan PhD is a pomologist and fruit historian, internationally renowned for her work on apples. In recognition of her work, Joan has been awarded the Royal Horticultural Society’s Veitch Memorial Medal (for contributions to the advancement of the ‘science and practice of horticulture’), and she is one of only 50 recipients of the Institute of Horticulture ‘Award for Outstanding Services to Horticulture’ and is an Honorary Freeman of the Worshipful Company of Fruiterers. Joan is closely associated with the UK National Fruit Collection, Brogdale, Kent; The Book of Pears gives a Directory to its Pear Collection as The Book of Apples does for the Apple Collection. She is Chairman of the RHS Fruit Trials Forum and Vice Chairman of the RHS Fruit, Vegetable and Herb Committee. Joan Morgan is the author, with Alison Richards, of The Book of Apples, The New Book of Apples, A Paradise out of a Common Field: the pleasures and plenty of the Victorian garden and a main contributor to The Downright Epicure, Essays on Edward Bunyard. She has devoted many years to researching and compiling The Book of Pears.