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    The Cabaret of Plants: Forty Thousand Years of Plant Life and the Human Imagination
    The Cabaret of Plants: Forty Thousand Years of Plant Life and the Human Imagination
    The Cabaret of Plants: Forty Thousand Years of Plant Life and the Human Imagination
    Audiobook11 hours

    The Cabaret of Plants: Forty Thousand Years of Plant Life and the Human Imagination

    Written by Richard Mabey

    Narrated by Ralph Lister

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook


    A rich, sweeping, and compelling work of botanical history, The Cabaret of Plants explores dozens of plant species that for millennia have challenged our imaginations, awoken our wonder, and upturned our ideas about history, science, beauty, and belief. Going back to the beginnings of human history, Richard Mabey shows how flowers, trees, and plants have been central to human experience not just as sources of food and medicine but as objects of worship, actors in creation myths, and symbols of war and peace, life and death.

    Mabey takes listeners from the Himalayas to Madagascar to the Amazon to our own backyards. He ranges through the work of writers, artists, and scientists and across nearly 40,000 years of human history: Ice Age images of plant life in ancient cave art and the earliest representations of the Garden of Eden; Newton's apple and gravity, Priestley's sprig of mint and photosynthesis, and Wordsworth's daffodils; the history of cultivated plants such as maize, ginseng, and cotton; and the ways the sturdy oak became the symbol of British nationhood and the giant sequoia came to epitomize the spirit of America.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateApr 29, 2016
    ISBN9781515974093
    The Cabaret of Plants: Forty Thousand Years of Plant Life and the Human Imagination
    Author

    Richard Mabey

    Richard Mabey is widely hailed as Britain's fore-most nature writer. He is the author of the groundbreaking book on foraging in the countryside Food for Free and the editor of The Oxford Book of Nature Writing. He has narrated and produced popular BBC television and radio series, and has written for the Guardian, Granta, and other publications. He lives in Norfolk, England.

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    Reviews for The Cabaret of Plants

    4/5

    21 ratings3 reviews

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    • 1/5
      I guess it's great if you want a British history of botany. Only a British view.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      I picked this up on impulse because I want to learn more about nature and plants, and thought it might be a nice introduction to some of the more unusual plants out there. I did learn some very interesting things but I also found myself skimming some sections because they were quite dense or meandered from the main topic somewhat. I think this is better suited to someone who already knows a bit about plants and is interested in how they were discovered. I should probably find a more straightforward botany book instead!
    • 4/5
      placeholder- will write longer review later (probably tomorrow). Great use of language & history, but a wee bit sentimental