Sue Stuart-Smith is a psychiatrist, psychotherapist and author of The Well Gardened Mind, a Sunday Times Bestseller, listed as one of the 37 best books of 2020 by The Times and gardening book of the year by The Sunday Times. It has since been translated into 18 languages.

She studied English Literature at the University of Cambridge before qualifying as a doctor and working in the National Health Service for many years, becoming the lead clinician for psychotherapy in Hertfordshire. She taught at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust in London and subsequently worked as a consultant at DocHealth, a not for profit, psychotherapeutic consultation service for doctors.

Her book, The Well Gardened Mind, analyses the relationship between gardening, nature connection and mental health. Stephen Fry called it, “the wisest book I’ve read for many years.”

She is married to Tom Stuart-Smith, the celebrated garden designer, and, over thirty years, they have created the Barn Garden in Hertfordshire. Together, in 2023, they founded The Serge Hill Project for Gardening, Creativity and Health, a not for profit community interest company which provides resources for local schools and mental health charities, and offers opportunities to connect with nature for those who have least access. The project is based in an old orchard near their home in Hertfordshire and incorporates a unique living plant library.

In September 2020 the London based Garden Museum commissioned Peter Kindersley to make a short film about Sue and the writing of The Well Gardened Mind. The film was shot in the Barn Garden and is available to watch online on the museum’s website along with the interview with artist and author Edmund de Waal which took place at the launch of the film in early November. The small fee for watching the film helps to provide much needed funds for the museum.

The National Garden Scheme ‘Gardens are for People’ Annual Lecture 2020, hosted by the Royal Geographic Society, was given jointly by Sue and Tom and is available to watch online at the same price as the original event. The National Garden scheme supports vital charities including Macmillan Cancer Support and Horatio’s Garden.

In March 2022 Sue contributed to the MACRO Museum’s Viriditas exhibition, created to offer the public a tool to enrich its gaze towards the issue of climate change.