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The Fair Botanists: Could one rare plant hold the key to a thousand riches?

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Observing this unfolding spectacle is newly widowed Elizabeth Rocheid who arrives in the city to live with her late husband’s aunt and start to build a new solitary life. The theme of the rare (at the time) plant which flowers only once, and what ultimately happens to it, is cleverly done, showing Belle to be a woman who is truly in control of her own life. True history lingers in the background as the King is paying a visit to the city so it really come to life.

The two women bond over their shared interest in botany, although Belle is determined to keep both her real identity and the reason for her interest in the garden secret from her new friend. Not quite once in a hundred years, but three decades at least so this was a huge event on any botany fan’s calendar. Well I’m excited cos I’m going on holidays this week and I’m taking Kirstin Innes’s Scabby Queen with me and I know I should have read it by now but somehow it just ended up far too far down my list. I really enjoyed the exploration of growing female independence in a male world - Belle and Elizabeth will stay with me for a long time. That’s no small feat for an author to achieve but it’s a wonderful world that Sara has created here.

Belle is single-minded, selfish, she tramples on those who get in her way (especially if they are men) and yet she has her own very strong moral code. I visited myself a few years ago, and before visiting I had not known that there was a dormant volcano in Edinburgh that people regularly climb. Bella is the exact opposite, she also has a botanical interest and one that she hopes will make her fortune.

As a result, although The Fair Botanists had some fascinating elements, the book didn’t quite capture my imagination in the way I’d hoped.It is then that she meets the vivacious and mysterious Belle Brodie, a woman with a passion for botany and the lucrative, dark art of perfume creation. She has sat on the committee for the Society of Authors in Scotland (where she lives) and on the board of '26' the campaign for the importance of words. Most of them have common interests but are all incredibly unique in their own ways with wonderful personalities which enable connections to be made – some more intimate than others! The agave americana plant, which only flowers every few decades, is a new edition to the botanical gardens, and is set to flower.

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