Green Kingdom

Utterly fascinating. I don't expect to read a better work of natural history this year

BILL BRYSON

Ben Dark is a fantastic writer: his ability to relate science through story is both brilliant and rare, and Green Kingdom – in its palatial scope, beautiful phrasing and companionable humanity – is an extraordinary example of his brimming talent and a hugely enjoyable read

MATT COLLINS, author of The Tree Atlas

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 Graven with Diamonds

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

Ben Dark – a worldwide, time-travelling storyteller – introduces 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

Green Kingdom reads like an adventure story, a love story, a history, a celebration and a revelation of the wonders of plant life. An emerald marvel as rich as the kingdom it describes

ROWAN HOOPER, author of Togetherness

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