Jennifer Potter (1)
Autor de Strange Blooms: The Curious Lives and Adventures of the John Tradescants
Para otros autores llamados Jennifer Potter, ver la página de desambiguación.
Sobre El Autor
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 mostrar más for the Times Literary Supplement, she is currently a Royal Literary Fund Fellow at King's College London. mostrar menos
Obras de Jennifer Potter
Etiquetado
Conocimiento común
- Género
- female
- Nacionalidad
- UK
- Ocupaciones
- horticultural historian
novelist - Agente
- Caroline Dawnay, United Agents
Miembros
Reseñas
Listas
También Puede Gustarte
Estadísticas
- Obras
- 10
- Miembros
- 368
- Popularidad
- #65,433
- Valoración
- 3.4
- Reseñas
- 4
- ISBNs
- 42
- Idiomas
- 2
Subjective review: This is not the book I was hoping for; I think I might have been looking for something more oriented towards botany/science or even economics. The author's writing style bogged me down to such an extent that I could read entire paragraphs and not really be able to tell anyone what they actually said, making this a book a piece of work for me rather than the joy I expected. Admittedly, I found myself almost completely disinterested in the role any of these flowers played in ancient art and mythology and there's a lot of that here as well.
Why did I keep going? Because the tulip and the orchid - the two flowers I cared most about - were the last two chapters of the damn book. Because I actually did learn something about each flower that I not only didn't know but would have argued against previously. For example, I did not know people ate lily bulbs; having had cats all my life and hearing how deadly they are to them, I would have guessed eating them wouldn't have done humans any great favours either. Same for tulips. So. Something learned.
As I've mentioned before in other posts, my mother was a florist for 40 years, and my father was an orchid breeder, so I really wanted to like this book. I did find the orchid chapter the most interesting - but I suspect that has as much to do with its lack of ancient history as anything the author actually had to say. I know firsthand how difficult - almost impossible - it is to breed and cultivate orchids. I can't do it at all; I might as well have a black hooded robe and scythe as try to grow any orchid myself. My father, having named one of his registered crosses after me, took a photo of it, framed it and gave it to me, telling me (with love, of course) that the photo is probably as close I should ever try to get to the real thing. So, I would have liked to have read more about that side of orchids. The author does end the book with a quote from Reginald Farrer, that almost perfectly captures my dad's love for the plant though:
"In that instant I understood Romeo and Juliet better than I ever had before. But my doom was sealed; as cruel engines drawing first one's coat-tail, and then by degrees the whole body, so the Orchids have now enveloped me densely in their web. I am engulfed in Orchids and their dreadful bills; nor do I see the slightest chance of ever tasting solvency or peace again."
Luckily, dad found a lot of peace in orchids, if not exactly solvency.… (más)