_The Book of Garden Flowers_ builds on the success of Angie Lewin's and Christopher Stocks' previous collaborations; _The Book of Wild Flowers_ (Thames & Hudson, 2024) and _The Book of Pebbles_ (Thames & Hudson, 2020.) While _The Book of Wild Flowers_ explored the natural history of Britain's favourite wild species, _The Book of Garden Flowers_ is more a social history, bringing into focus some of the remarkable people who introduced exotic plants to our gardens from around the globe, including:
Margery Fish, secretary to six successive editors at the Daily Mail, who rescued many cottage garden flowers from obscurity
Ellen Willmot, who employed over 100 staff in her garden and burned through a huge fortune thanks to her passion for plants, dying penniless and alone
Charles Dickens, who became obsessed with a particular pelargonium
John Gerrard, the famous 17th-century herbalist, who planted the first nasturtiums in the UK at his City of London garden
Henry VIII, who ate the first British-grown artichokes on the outskirts of Chelmsford
Revealing new stories behind some of our most familiar and unusual garden plants, this beautiful book explores the horticultural history and floral folklore of some of the nation's favourite flowers.
ANGIE LEWIN studied fine art at the Central School of Art and has since become a highly regarded artist and printmaker. She has published three books: _Angie Lewin: Plants and Places_, _The Book of Pebbles_ and _The Book of Wild Flowers_.
CHRISTOPHER STOCKS is a writer and journalist who has worked for, among others, Harpers & Queen, ES Magazine, Arena and Wallpaper. More recently he wrote a weekly gardening column for the Independent On Sunday, and he is a regular contributor to Gardens Illustrated. He won a 2007 Bridport Prize for his poetry. His first book, _Forgotten Fruits_, was published in 2008. _The Book of Pebbles_ was published in 2019.