Anatomy Of A Rose: The Secret Lives Of Flowers

Sharman Apt Russell

Editions

Review

In these days of Bookers, Pulitzers and Whitbreads, I suggest a new accolade, ‘The Sobel Prize For Literature’, to be awarded to the book which squeezes in the maximum number if scientific facts into the minimum number of pages and to be funded from the vast royalties garnered by Longitude pbk £5.99.  And I believe I have found a serious contender in this book by Sharman Apt Russell, whose method seems to be to ascribe to plants and animals the most lurid motivations and to present them in the style worthy of the most sensational ‘bodice-ripping’ paperbacks.  Thus we enter the twilight world of nymphomaniacal Delphinuims, sadistic Snapdragons and well-endowed moths doing unspeakable things to innocent Evening Primroses.

“Oh how unscietific!”  Well, actually, no.  Sharman has certainly done her homework and her breadth of knowledge is impressive.

“But surely you wouldn’t let your children read such things?”  As a matter of fact I think that’s a brilliant idea. So much  livelier than those dreary textbooks.

One thing I didn’t much care for though, was the lilac-tinted introduction to each chapter, in which our author is awe-struck by the wonders of nature before she gets down to the nitty-gritty ( a bit of soft focus before the hardcore, as it were!), but that apart, I thought it was vastly entertaining. - review by Stewart Grimshaw