The Fair Botanists: Could one rare plant hold the key to a thousand riches?

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I'd highly recommend The Fair Botanists for any fans of historical fiction, for readers interested in nature, and for readers who enjoy stories depicting strong female characters. En definitiva, la novela perfecta para evadirse y disfrutar de un viaje en el tiempo y en el espacio. The keeper of the collection had promised the seeds to Kew for his own advancement; the head gardener has sold the seeds to pay his debts; our courtesan, Belle, wants the flowers to add to her love potion; and our artist, Elizabeth, is drawing the flowers. Women familiar with discussions around the sciences and the arts, women who, though they lived in a world ruled by men, were aware of the power of their own intellect. Tiene pasión por la repostería y ocupa su tiempo dibujando, lo que la llevará a convertirse en la ilustradora oficial del Jardín Botánico a su llegada a Edinburgo.

I wanted to climb inside it, to live in it… as long as I got to live among the well-heeled gentry, of course.The story centres around a young newly widowed, Elizabeth Rocheid, and Isobel "Belle" Brodie, the half-sister of Joseph Brodie, a gentlemen of reasonable wealth and stature. Again, I know that's not necessarily true to the era, so maybe I'm being unfair - but I find the more I like a book the more I am enjoying the characters, the more harshly I judge them.

Despite being the great grand-daughter of a duke, her circumstances meant that her life was far from that of nobility and, particularly as a woman, her life choices were limited.

Good historical fiction allows you to make that connection on a visceral level – it’s a time machine. The theme of the rare (at the time) plant which flowers only once, and what ultimately happens to it, is cleverly done, showing Belle to be a woman who is truly in control of her own life. Independent minded and ambitious, she is prepared to pursue a life of pleasure without concern for social conventions. McNab has more to lose than most, Elizabeth wants to capture the rare event with her art, and Belle… well, she is seeking the missing ingredient for a perfume so powerfully mystical it will secure her future. Mise-en-scéne: yes we get fashion, and food, and period detail and, in this book, a truly brilliant amount of information about early 19th century perfumery, plantswomanship (if that’s a word!

The main female characters may be fictional, but they represent the many real women living in that city towards the end of the Scottish Enlightenment era. I knew many of the stories I told already, even I was blown away by the scale on which we have forgotten female achievement over the centuries simply because we have consistently neglected to properly memorialise it. Everything is told to you, everything is narrated, and every single character gets their turn on the point of view. Clementina is a newcomer to the city, she is to live with her inlaws after the death of her husband.It’s around this extraordinary moment in Edinburgh history – and the historic visit of George IV to the city later that summer, which led to what became known as the “Daft Days” of runaway royalist enthusiasm. Established in 2009, Tippermuir seeks to add to the cultural life of Scotland by publishing interesting and worthy books in English and Scots. They've both faced adversity in their lives, yet they are able to use their circumstances to the best of their ability, and to overcome the difficult situations they've found themselves in. Ella es una viuda "rescatada" de la incipiente pobreza en la que la ha dejado su marido, y a la que su sobrino acoge a condición de que cuide a una familiar mayor y algo senil (Lady Clementina), otra de las protagonistas más divertidas de la novela.