The Botanist's Daughter

Product Information

In a striking and original way, Haeseker shows us how we rely on small things, and how their destruction can have huge and irreversible consequences. Indeed, they are not just “small things” – that is precisely her point. They matter as much as if they were six feet tall. Nature is bigger than us, even if we do not typically view it as such. El Anatsui – interview: ‘My inspiration comes from things people have used – there are so many endless delights’ As Haeseker explains: “My studio work in the past decade has entered into the realms of where art and science meet. For The Botanist’s Daughter, I have produced subjective imagery at a scale that invites consideration of the parallel world that has always been present alongside our own. This exhibition looks deeper into what is often invisible to our eyes, below our feet, to consider how small changes can have larger consequences.”

Kayte Nunn’s novels are always highly anticipated for me and each one is a delight to read. The Last Reunion is inspired by the women who served in Burma during WWII, running canteens near the frontlines. I have read quite widely on WWII, both fiction and non-fiction, yet I hadn’t heard of these service women at all prior to reading this novel. I honestly didn’t even know there were canteens in operation during the war either, much less that they travelled from battle to battle, entirely run by women who had volunteered for the service. I really love what Kayte says in her author note about writing fiction that is inspired by real events:All up this a wonderful read that truly opened my eyes to the role women played in Burma during the war. To daily confront such challenging circumstances, one would need to form bonds of support to be able to face it day after day. To find love and friendship amongst such danger and death is what makes this story so incredibly moving. That’s really hard, can I have two? The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh and The Storied Life of AJ Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin. Both are wonderfully emotional and uplifting – you will laugh and cry.

The Last Reunion by Kayte Nunn is set in multiple timelines that are both intriguing as each other. It’s a beautiful book filled with spirt, friendship, courage, secrets, art and revenge. A book you won’t want to put down! The book details stories about all five women. Their courage, strengths and the bond that ties them all together. This is such a unique story brimming with many memorable characters and deeply moving passages. The writing just flowed so well and the characters had me captivated. This is such an awesome example of bringing history to life. Fast forward to 1999 and Olivia, a young Australian art history graduate is interning at a small art dealer in London when her boss gets a call from an elderly widow who wants to sell her husband's Japanese art collection, including a rare Foxgirl netsuke which was reported stolen in 1976. Olivia is sent to assess the collection and determine whether there is provenance for the netsuke, which could be worth tens of thousands of pounds, but falls ill on the woman's doorstep and gets snowed in for Christmas. Thanks is extended to Hachette Australia for providing a free copy of this book for review purposes.London and Galway, 1999. Aussie Olivia Goddard is working as an intern for art dealer Elaine, to gain experience and she’s hopeful it may lead to a permanent position. Given very little notice Olivia is sent to Wiltshire to meet with Beatrix Pelham, a long term client who wants to sell her deceased husband's Japanese art collection and use the money to fix her crumbling house. Olivia unexpectedly stays with Mrs. Pelham over Christmas holidays; she’s been invited to a New Year’s Eve party in Ireland and she asks Olivia to take her. Olivia has no idea she will be caught up in the drama of fifty year old war time secrets and complicated friendships. In 1945, Bea decides to join the Army in a women's only squad assigned in Burma. They are the forgotten squadron in the forgotten war, serving food and supplies to the Allied forces and coming very close to the front line. I had to find a way for the sketchbook and diary to end up in Sydney, so there needed to be a fairly dramatic twist, but the specifics of which characters it involved unfolded as I wrote it, and particularly as Daisy became a stronger character in the book. I’ve always loved books and words and stories and writing, from as soon as I could read by myself. I worked as a features writer and editor, getting very good at editing other people’s words, all the while ignoring the quiet voice telling me that what I really wanted to do was write my own stories. I finally summoned up the courage to begin, and am so pleased I did – it feels like the thing I am supposed to be doing.

The growing friendship between Olivia and Beatrix was a real pleasure to read and Kayte Nunn conveys some of the horrors of the Burma campaign and the conditions of war without giving the reader nightmares. I have enjoyed other historical fiction novels from this author, including The Forgotten Letters of Esther Durrant and The Silk House and I knew I was in safe hands here. I was working as a freelance journalist, and so was able to cut down on my freelance editing and writing as the fiction took up more of my time. Told partly in 1944/5 and partly in 1999 we discover what life was like for young (Bea started in the Wasbies when she was only twenty) girls from sheltered homes who had to endure the heat and humidity of working in a jungle with only rudimentary housing and equipment. How she came to possess the netsuke, how it was lost and how she reclaimed it. Unfolding in dual timelines in 1999 and 1945, the mystery of the netsuke drives the narrative forward and I'd have loved the title to reflect this. More than that though, The Last Reunion is a story of the bonds of friendship, mateship, love and loss and of course trauma.

Tamara Henderson: Green in the Grooves

The Last Reunion is everything readers have come to love about Kayte Nunn’s novels: a unique story with memorable characters and deeply moving moments. It was thoroughly enjoyable and beautifully written. This is a humbling show: in this space, humans are not bigger than the creatures and plants we tend to trample on. Instead, we see the consequences of human existence on the very species we need to live. We feel, instinctively, before we quite understand the reasons underpinning this sense, that something is not right. Although it is not immediately obvious that the flies are dead, I am overcome by a wave of sadness, and so look closer. Although I don’t know why a dandelion should worry me, it does so, before I understand that it is somehow contaminated. The Last Reunion is inspired by The Wasbies, a group of women during World War II where little information exists about them. The Wasbies were the women Auxiliary Service (Burma) a group of around two hundred and fifty formidable women from Australia, England and Candada. They ran mobile and static canteens in the dense Burmese jungle, battling the monsoon rain, mosquitoes, treacherous roads and deadly enemy fire. They did more than hand out cups of hot tea and slices of home made cake, they boosted the morale of the troops and provided vital work supplying sundries like toothpaste, razor blades, lemonade and gum etc. The modern day timeline - some fifty years on - see these women meet up again in Ireland and face some underlying issues from the past. This ‘reunion’ will certainly test loyalties that were forged all those many years ago. I also really enjoyed the character of Olivia as a side story - an Aussie trying to live and work in London - her story is more than just a support to Bea.