The Scientist Who Found God in the Amazon: Sir Ghillean Prance

So now you're in New York.

You stay there 10 years or so.

It was ended up 25 years.

Gosh,

yes.

So what brought you back to England?

I was solicited by Kew to come back.

I think I'd worked with quite a lot of the Kew staff.

I'd visited Kew regularly because it was essential for my research.

And the group at Kew that were very interested in tropical botany – really twisted my arm, said, you should apply for this job.

And actually, one of the trustees of Kew came and made a visit to New York Botanical Garden And unbeknownst to me, he was actually looking me over.

And then I was sort of persuaded to apply.

And I

got the job.

Yes.

No, of course, I know very well because my former supervisor and colleague was actually on that committee.

He was

indeed.

Yes.

So your time at Kew, though, was quite remarkable because I think people know about but don't understand why it happened is the formation of what we now know as the Millennium C Bank at Wakehurst Place.

Can you please tell us about how that was developed and why that was developed through your time?

Yes, that's a wonderful story, really.

When they announced that there was going to be – the lottery would give 10 landmark projects funding with large funding, I immediately said – Q must get one of these.

So what I did was I circulated the senior staff and said, send me what projects you think would be suitable for this.

And I actually got back about 10 ideas from the staff.