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Seven Flowers and How They Shaped Our World

Seven Flowers and How They Shaped Our World

by JenniferPotter (Author), JenniferPotter (Author)

  • Used

    Hardcover 2013

    $4.36
Synopsis

**SHORTLISTED FOR THE GARDEN MEDIA AWARDS, INSPIRATIONAL BOOK OF THE YEAR**

The lotus, lily, sunflower, opium poppy, rose, tulip and orchid. Seven flowers: seven stories full of surprise and secrets.

Where and when did these flowers originate? What is the nature of their power and how was it acquired? What use has been made of them in gardens, literature and art? These are both histories and detective stories, full of incident, unexpected revelations, and irony. The opium poppy, for example, returned to haunt its progenitors in the West; and while Confucius saw virtue and modesty in his native orchids, the ancient Greeks saw only sex.

These are flowers of life and death; of purity and passion; of greed, envy and virtue; of hope and consolation; of the beauty that drives men wild. All seven demonstrate the enduring ability of flowers to speak metaphorically - if we could only decode what they have to say.

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More Information

Format: Hardcover
 Pages: 304
 Edition: 1st
 Publisher: Atlantic Books
Published: 03 Oct 2013
ISBN 10: 0857891642
ISBN 13: 9780857891648
Book Overview: The lotus, lily, sunflower, opium poppy, rose, tulip and orchid: one of our finest horticultural historians considers a septet of flowers that have enflamed hearts and minds in cultures around the world.

Media Reviews

This literary delight will surely become compulsory reading for flower enthusiasts everywhere...
Accompanied by magnificent colour plates and botanical etchings, this book is a voyage of discovery. A thoroughly rewarding read.

* The Lady *
Jennifer Potter is a wonderful writer on the history and culture of plants, plantsmen, and gardens... Any gardener, of the practical or armchair variety, will love this beautifully written survey. * Good Book Guide *
Endlessly beguiling... Potter's range of reference is huge, from Dante to Ginsberg, from the flower-and-bird paintings of the Song dynasty to Manet and from early Christianity to Hindu creation myths... Every page yields up some delicious nuggets * Gardens Illustrated *
Fascinating and highly readable * The Garden *
Author Bio
Jennifer Potter is the author of four novels and five works of non-fiction, most recently Strange Blooms: The Curious Lives and Adventures of the John Tradescants; The Rose: A True History; and Seven Flowers and How They Shaped Our World, all three published by Atlantic Books. A regular reviewer for the Times Literary Supplement, she is currently a Royal Literary Fund Fellow at King's College London.