THE GARDEN LOG

The Family History of Plants

​

What an awesome book... Ben Dark is a master storyteller. — NIGEL SLATER

Magnificently researched, captivatingly written and philosophically meaty, Green Kingdom skilfully weaves together the wonder of botanical evolution with human history and folklore to create a profound yet joyfully entertaining read. Dammit, if I had written this, I would die happy — JONATHAN DRORI, author of Around the World in 80 Plants

A book that traverses deep time and takes the reader on a wondrous journey through the kingdom of plants. Ben Dark engaged me every step of the way with his elegant mix of storytelling and science — SUE STUART SMITH, author of The Well Gardened Mind

In Green Kingdom, Ben Dark, gardener extraordinaire and plant historian, gives plants their due: an epic story of 500 million years of evolution and adaptation, from the simplest bog mosses to ferns and evergreens to grasses and flowers and towering jungle trees. Through Dark’s light and airy prose, horticulture, history, science, and culture intertwine to celebrate the diversity and resilience of plants — STEVE BRUSATTE, author of The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs

Ben Dark has the unusual ability to see both the forest and the trees. Green Kingdom is at once closely observed, wonderfully far-ranging, and sharply written. It is a fascinating account of man's long and tangled association with plants — ELIZABETH KOLBERT, author of The Sixth Extinction

With this new odyssey of plant evolution, Ben Dark emerges as a natural history writer of spectacular gifts. He tacks with enviable deftness between the microscopic and the cosmically immense, between the backward chasm of the past and the friendly minutiae of modern life, between hard science and the flowerings of human artistry. He can make a history of mosses into an adventure story full of luck and danger, monsters and meteorites. His prose is both lucid and beautiful, and often witty. A wonderful book — NICOLA SHULMAN, author of A Rage for Rock Gardening

Elegant, erudite and entrancing. This is a book you'll want to read once for its fascinating information and colourful stories, and again, just for the sheer pleasure of it — ROBERT MOOR, author of In Trees

Ben Dark – a world-wide, time-travelling storyteller – sure can sugar the science pill for readers who know no botany… Introducing us to characters with astonishing tales to tell. In Green Kingdom, Dark wears his scholarship lightly and brilliantly, weaving an epic narrative with botanical research. His curiosity and enthusiasm make for an unputdownable read — MARY KEEN, author of Diary of a Keen Gardener

​