Susan Orlean first met John Laroche when visiting Florida to write for the NEW YORKER about his arrest for stealing rare ghost orchids from a nature reserve. Fascinated both by Laroche & the world she uncovered of orchid collectors & growers, she stayed on, to write this magical exploration of obsession & the strange world both of the orchid obsessives & of Florida, that haunting & weird 'debatable land' of swamps & condos, retirement communities & real-estate scams. The world of the orchid hunters, breeders & showmen, their rivalries, vendettas & crimes, smuggling, thefts & worse provide the backdrop to a fascinating exploration of one of the byways of human nature, the obsessive world of the collector, & the haunting beauty of the flowers themselves. ...

Susan Orlean first met John Laroche when visiting Florida to write for the NEW YORKER about his arrest for stealing rare ghost orchids from a nature reserve. Fascinated both by Laroche & the world she uncovered of orchid collectors & growers, she stayed on, to write this magical exploration of obsession & the strange world both of the orchid obsessives & of Florida, that haunting & weird 'debatable land' of swamps & condos, retirement communities & real-estate scams. The world of the orchid hunters, breeders & showmen, their rivalries, vendettas & crimes, smuggling, thefts & worse provide the backdrop to a fascinating exploration of one of the byways of human nature, the obsessive world of the collector, & the haunting beauty of the flowers themselves. ...

Margaret Dempsey is an Irish Catholic girl who discovers sexual freedom in London but is racked with guilt
- until, with the help
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Margaret Dempsey is an Irish Catholic girl who discovers sexual freedom in London but is racked with guilt
- until, with the help
...

One of the founding documents of Western culture & the only surviving ancient Greek trilogy, this is one of the great tragedies of all time. The three plays portray the bloody events that follow the victorious return of King Agamemnon from the Trojan War.
Contains Agamemnon, Choephoroe & Eumenides
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A fascinating history of Britain's plant biodiversity & a unique account of how our garden landscape has been transformed over 1000 years, from 200 species of plant in the year 1000 to the astonishing variety of plants we can all see today. Thousands of plants have been introduced into Britain since 1066 by travellers, warriors, explorers & plant hunters
- plants that we now take for granted such as rhododendron from the Far East, gladiolus from Africa & exotic plants like the monkey puzzle tree from Chile.

Both a plant history & a useful reference book, Maggie Campbell-Culver has researched the provenance & often strange histories of many of the thousands of plants, exploring the quirky & sometimes rude nature of the plants, giving them a personality all of their own & setting them in their social context.

The text is supported by beautiful contemporary paintings & modern photographs in 2 x 8 pp colour sections.




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WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY DARWIN'S GREAT-GREAT-GRANDDAUGHTER, RUTH PADEL

When the eminent naturalist Charles Darwin returned

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WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY DARWIN'S GREAT-GREAT-GRANDDAUGHTER, RUTH PADEL

When the eminent naturalist Charles Darwin returned

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