Kathy Willis

A relaxing and slightly old fashioned text. I'll give it another half star but I'm feeling generous. It's mostly about Kew Gardens which seems obvious to me from the cover but maybe it would have been better to include it in the title as some other reviewers complained as it came as a surprise.

I think my favourite chapter was 'A Blooming Tree of Life' but it is very brief. There were other interesting chapters too but the structure of the book has many brief chapters punctuated with groups of photos that are great but always come too late to illuminate the text, and it's always difficult to hunt back and find something that was interesting but half remembered.

And I have to agree with some other reviewers. The coverage of the british empire is mealy-mouthed. Reads as if the authors might have been a lot fiercer but were going to great lengths to try and speak a bit of truth without upsetting some vague establishment consensus. And for such a global subject came across as a disappointingly narrow viewpoint. Perhaps only an extra quarter star.… (more)