Writer in a Valley is the compelling story of Jean Galbraith (1906-1999), one of Australias most influential botanists and writers on nature, plants and gardens. As a garden writer, she was particularly notable for spreading knowledge of Australian flora and encouraging the cultivation of natives in home gardens. As a botanist she wrote accessible field guides to Australian wildflowers that made a vital contribution to the conservation of native plants. She conveyed the wonders of nature to generations of children through her child-centred stories of adventures in the natural world. Her nature writing evoked the spirit of places she knew well and introduced readers to the beauty of the Australian bush. During a writing career that began in the mid 1920s and spanned seventy years, Galbraith developed new forms of garden writing in Australia and she turned botanical writing into a literary art. During this long career, Galbraiths writing reached multiple audiences, both national and international: breathless pre-schoolers listening to her nature stories read out on the ABCs Kindergarten of the Air, gardeners in Britain and America intrigued by lyrical articles evoking the beauty of Australian flora, field naturalists who regarded her wildflower guides as glove box Bibles. This book also explores the relationship between a writer and her place, the valley of the Latrobe River in Gippsland, bordered by the foothills of the Great Dividing Range to the north and the Strzelecki Ranges to the south, where temperate rainforest can still be found in the folds of the hills. Galbraiths writing was inspired by her place: the house, garden and valley where she lived from childhood to old age. Her story, then, is an interplay between the local and the national. From her home in Gippsland, inspired by her surroundings, Galbraith put her vision of nature into words and helped Australians of all ages to see their own landscapes in new ways. Through telling Jean Galbraiths story, important themes in Australias twentieth century botanical, gardening and conservation history are explored. But also explored is the life of a gifted writer with a passion for nature and an urge to share - and conserve - the beauty around her.