Abundant Beauty

Starting in 1871, Marianne North-a Brilliant Artist with a keen interest in botany-spent fourteen years circling the globe on a quest to paint indigenous plants in their natural habitat. North produced an extensive and scientifically valuable collection of more than eight hundred paintings, which today comprise the esteemed Marianne North Gallery at the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew. North-high spirited, indefatigable, and brave-also kept detailed journals, which were published in three volumes. Abundant Beauty collects the most engaging writing from those journals in one edition, including rich descriptions of botanical treasures and notes from her expeditions to Brazil, California, Japan, India, Australia, and South Africa. Abundant Beauty is a captivating read that will interest botanists, gardeners, historians, and armchair travellers.

Marianne North was born in 1830 in Hastings, England. The daughter of a politician, North was raised in a socially active and intellectually stimulating household. She cared for her parents until their deaths, taking on the role of her father’s housekeeper and travelling companion until he died in 1869. For the next fifteen years, she travelled extensively, painting indigenous and unique plants from the four corners of the globe. She took her last journey (to Chile) in 1884 and then, suffering from attacks of “nerves,” settled for good at her cottage at Gloucestershire to organize her journals. A number of plant species are named in her honour, including Areca northiana, Crinum northianum, and Kniphofia northiana. Marianne North died in 1890.

Laura Ponsonby, former Archivist, Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew, is the author of two books about Marianne North.