She wrote a number of detective novels with Bery Hearnden (using the pseudonym Hearnden Balfour), including "A Gentleman from Texas" (1927), "The Paper Chase" (1928) and "The Enterprising Burglar" (1928).
In 1943 her book "The Living Soil" was published, one of the first and most influential texts regarding the organic farming movement.
In 1946 she co-founded the Soil Association and became it's first president. She officially retired from the organisation almost forty years later, aged 85.
Her first job was working for the Women's War Agricultural Committee in 1918, running a small farm in Monmouthshire, UK, managing a team of land girls.