Toby Musgrave

This is a book that I return to often as an inspiration for my own and client's gardens. Toby Musgrave enlivens the text with photographs, drawings, and diagrams making it as much a "how-to" book as it is an exhilirating style source. Whenever I have been stalled in any type of design work (interior designers and architects can find just as much impetus as landscape designers), this book has gotten me moving again. I especially enjoy the way that Musgrave has worked in lessons on garden show more history and how these influences may be seen in today's landscapes. A must-have for anyone trying to make places of significance. show less

For the curious gardener this would make a fine introduction to the history of these men who brought so many of the plants we take for granted into our gardens. It covers 10 of the most prominant plant hunters/explorers in roughly chronological order. Musgrave is an enteretaining and knowledgable author and his own passion for plants come through. Each chapter covers a specific character, not only with a biography, but also with some context of the times during which the expeditions were show more undertaken. My only complaint is that the maps are rather poor. There is also a brief description of each of their most popular introductions. Definately a book to whet the appetite and encourage further reading. show less

Rating of 4.60

A short (190 page) but glossy book on seven plants and their impact on human history, especially colonialism: tobacco, sugar cane, cotton, tea, the opium poppy, chinchona (the source of quinine) and rubber. I wasn't hugely satisfied: I can think of other significant plants (the spices, coffee and cacao, flax and sisal, the coconut/copra) whose trade has affected and continues to affect the world economy. I found numerous irritating trivial mistakes (one that I will treasure refers to the show more British occupation of "Cypress" rather than Cyprus). The major reference cited is J.M. Roberts' Penguin History of the World. There are too many sidebar blocks of text which could have been better incorporated into the main narrative. It could perhaps be a nice jumping-off point for further reading but didn't satisfy me. show less