Sharman Apt Russell: Anatomy of a Rose: The secret lives of flowers

By MARGIE THOMSON

This is an absolute original - a blending of poetic instinct with science; an illumination of both the beauty and botanical complexity of flowers.

We don't usually express or explore the emotional response that flowers - their colour, intricacy and scent - can evoke in us, and it can sound really corny if ever we do. But Russell transcends corniness, using graceful writing, cutting-edge science and her own empathy to gently analyse "the physics of beauty".

Everything from smell, shape, colour, reproduction ("a stroll through the garden is almost embarrassing", she writes), genetic engineering and remedies is explored in an odd mixture of childlike simplicity, awe and scientific clarity. As she says: "A sense of wonder is not only our starting point. It can also be our destination."

A beautiful present for any gardener of inquiring mind and literary taste.

Heinemann

$44.95