Margaret Abbott

Presenter

Margaret retired to Kommetjie in 2015 with her husband Geoff, after living in the UK for 26 years. Originally from the state of New Hampshire in the US, she lived and worked in Atlanta Georgia for almost 20 years, where she was the Executive Director of The Coca-Cola Foundation and responsible for the company’s philanthropy. She and Geoff moved to Britain in 1989 where she became the Director of Development of the American School in London before starting her own educational fundraising consulting practice, ASK Associates.

She joined the International Women’s Club of Cape Town in 2016 and began her garden adventures as garden Group Leader, having organised some 57 garden visits. Sharing her love of gardens has now developed into a new career as a presenter/lecturer to garden clubs and organisations in South Africa, the UK and the US. All fees are donated to a small elementary school she and her husband helped to start which provides an education to the children of undocumented workers in the township of Masiphumelele, near Fish Hoek.

Margaret was a lecturer at the UCT Summer School in 2021 and 2022, and has happily retired (again) to Helderberg Village in Somerset West. Her FynArts lecture on Vita Sackville-West and her garden at Sissinghurst was originally developed for the ‘Glorious Gardens from Around the World’ lectures she gave at the UCT Summer School.