A sumptuously illustrated and beautifully written volume with accounts of 100 plants and their roles in human existence. This is one of those fairly rare books that is good to look at and even better to read. If you have forgotten what a brilliant writer is Simon Barnes then this book is a fine reminder.
A history of the world? Well, plants are pretty good to take you anywhere and everywhere from redwoods to mushrooms and from apples to cabbages. The reader is led into thinking about what we eat, what we drink, what we smoke, what we wear, what we build and much, much more.
A great Christmas present for someone you like.
The cover? Pretty good (and there is a bird!) but I’m not sure that it was the best choice of those on offer in this book. But I’d give it 8/10 nonetheless.
The History of the World in 100 Plants by Simon Barnes is published by Simon & Schuster
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For the umpteenth time
Fungi are not Plants !
They are a kingdom all of their own
Closer to animals than plants.
Gary – I look forward to the best selling ‘The World in 100 Fungi’ though.
I’ll start writing it later today.
Gary – super! Looking forward to it.
No1 Saccharomyces cerevisiae ,Yeast
The fungus that gave us beer (alcohol) and leavened bread.
A good starter.
I like Good News books. The last book I read on this topic was “Fifty Plants That Changed History” by Bill Laws. It is wonderful to see that the number of history-changing plants has doubled, bucking the popular trend towards oblivion
Perhaps Laws was a better biologist and he only wrote about plants and not fungi!!