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

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Sheridan has penned more than 20 books including cosy crime noir set in 1950s Britain (her popular Mirabelle Bevan Mystery series) and historical novels based on the real-life stories of late Georgian and early Victorian explorers. Botanist and physician Robert Graham, the 6th Regius Keeper of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, attempts to wangle an invite to the big royal soiree and makes some questionable life choices as the plot progresses. The plot was nonexistent. Well, not completely nonexistent I suppose, but the whole plot seemed to be about this centennial plant that was about to flower and everyone trying to barter for the limited amount of seeds it would produce when it did flower. That was all I could find that would constitute a plot in the third of the book I managed to read. Under the instruction of head gardener William McNab, the collection from the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RBGE) is being slowly and painstakingly moved from its former home at Leith Walk to Inverleith.

I absolutely loved The Fair Botanists. Set in 19th century Edinburgh when the New Town is being built, the city is preparing for a Royal visit from King George IV, and botanists are getting excited about the imminent flowering of the Agave Americana. This plant is known as the century plant and flowers only once every few decades. It's much sought after by many for varied reasons and many of the characters in this book have reason to want to get a hold of its valuable flowers and seeds.We have closed Reek now, but quite a bit of our stuff has been collected by the National Museum of Scotland and the Glasgow Women's Library," she says. "It was a big, interesting project and nice that they consider it important enough to collect. The book itself centres around a rare plant that flowers only once in its life – and let’s just say that many of the characters have their own needs and vested interests when it comes to flowers, seeds and the like! I loved the detail about the scents, the botany (who knew about the rivalry between Kew and other botanical gardens?) and the domestic trivia - Elizabeth is living in a house with dreadful bread! The Fair Botanists is a bewitching and immersive story for fans of The Miniaturist, The Doll Factory and The Signature of All Things.

Belle is determined to keep both her real identity and the reason for her interest the Garden secret from her new friend. But as Elizabeth and Belle are about to discover, secrets don’t last long in this Enlightenment city . . .

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As I am fond of Scotland, the 19th century, historical fiction and - why not? - flowers and perfumes, how could I not enjoy Sara Sheridan’s latest novel? Author Sara said: “‘I love Sophie’s work – she is an artist who truly makes magic. I was blown away when she decided to paint Belle and Elizabeth, and she has captured them so beautifully. Belle is very flirtatious – you can see that straight away – and Elizabeth is both vulnerable and haughty. I love both paintings. This caught my attention as I am reading an historical novel right now about an artist in Malaysia who is searching for the elusive parasol flower so she can paint it. I will have to keep my eye out for this one, as well!

With the trio swiftly encased at one table, Sheridan waxed lyrical about women's history in Edinburgh – "the female artists, scientists, salonnieres, writers, philosophers and sex workers whose legacy has been consistently underplayed" – at the tail end of the Enlightenment. Seeing them close up in the gallery was like meeting these women, who exist in my imagination, in real life. It’s an honour that they engaged the imagination of such a talented artist.”

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It is a credit to Sara’s wonderful writing and character conception that I was able to do this. As soon as the paintings were ‘born’ I had to show Sara, who had no idea I was creating them.” READ MORE: Sara Sheridan on battling deafness, reclaiming Scottish cultural identity and perfecting cosy crime noir LIKE many great literary stories our tale begins with a chance encounter. In this case, the author Sara Sheridan was enjoying a coffee at the Edinburgh restaurant Contini's in late 2019 when her phone pinged with a text message.