Tulip

"One That Scatters and Blooms," "One That Changes Owners," "Those That Burn the Heart," "The Roman's Spear" -- all are names for that most charming and immediately recognizable flower, the tulip. Anna Pavord, gardening correspondent for Britain's The Independent and the author of The Flowering Year and Gardening Companion, among other books, admits readily her obsession with the flower in The Tulip, a meticulously researched and delightfully descriptive history of the tulip.

Richard Rudgley

...[W]ritten by a modern high priestess of the cult [and] destined to achieve Biblical status....Although Pavord is a willing victim of tulipomania her book does not evoke the crazed world of fanatics... —London Review of Books

Anna Pavord is the gardening correspondent for the Independent, and the author of The Flowering Years and Gardening Companion. She lives in Dorset, England.