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

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Chapters end with lines such as: “Clare… I’ve got some terrible news.” Graveyards loom through windows. Horrified at what’s going on, Clare reveals to a friend: “I keep thinking I’m in a book.” “You always think that,” she is told with a sniff. Tippermuir Books Ltd is a book publisher based in Perth. Established in 2009, Tippermuir seeks to add to the cultural life of Scotland by publishing interesting and worthy books in English and Scots. Our strength is our smallness and love of the writte …

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

In the summer of 1822, amasses of trees seem to move through Edinburgh town centre, ready to root themselves in the new, sumptuous Botanical Gardens. Mr McNab runs the glorious gardens and is especially proud of the rare Agave Americana aloe that looks set to flower – an event which only occurs once in a century. Elizabeth, newly widowed and ready for a new adventure, arrives at the house of Clementina, her late husband’s aunt. She is soon drawn towards the beauty and allure of the Botanical Gardens and as a keen artist she positions herself as the flower’s official portrait maker. Belle Brodie is a high-end courtesan who has a secret passion for botany and the art of perfume creation. She hopes to create the perfect love potion that will cement her fortune. Will the Botanical Gardens give both women a fresh sense of purpose? Or will their secrets lay them exposed and bare? An occasional journalist and blogger, Sara has appeared on BBC Radio 4’s From Our Own Correspondent and blogged for the Guardian and the London Review of Books. She is a member of the Historical Writers Association and the Crime Writers Association and occasionally mentors for the Scottish Book Trust. Elizabeth is my favourite character, we watch her slowly grow into her own newfound independence across the novel, no longer kept in the shadows by her husband. She attracts the attention of the king’s advisor and is soon able to imagine a world tinted by the soft glow of romance. My second favourite character is Mhairi MacDonald who works at the whiskey distillery and has increased its profits tenfold with her heightened sense of smell – to compensate for her blindness. Miss Brodie wonders if this special girl might be able to help her concoct her love potion and increase its potency.

Despite all this, I want to carry on, in memory of my late father. It is the children and young people I especially feel for. Their future is not safe. It is also affecting them psychologically, with many suffering from mental health issues. There is a high dropout rate among the boys at our secondary school. It is similar in many other nearby villages and towns – with Palestinians either evicted or simply leaving, in despair, to live in other countries.

The Fair Botanists by Sara Sheridan – review – From First The Fair Botanists by Sara Sheridan – review – From First

Thank you that’s very nice of you to say. I’m just starting another novel set slightly later – in the 1840s and mostly in Glasgow. It’s about an early female photographer – a fictional one but she is based on a real-life character. One of the things I’m interested in just now is the differences between Edinburgh and Glasgow and where those differences came from. So far, the research for this book has been a bit of an odyssey! I’m really enjoying it, particularly looking at the female gaze from its inception in photography.Doha Asous is an olive farmer from a village near Nablus in the occupied West Bank. She is in Britain for Fairtrade Fortnight to talk about agriculture in Palestine and to promote local produce – olives and their oil, as well as other typical foods, such as dates. Here she describes life in her village during the recent violence between Palestinian locals and Jewish settlers. Charged with a mission by the Empress of Brazil, celebrated writer and the toast of Georgian London, Maria Graham sets off for England with the Brazilian civil war at its height. Newly widowed and a woman travelling alone, the stakes are high and when she accepts roguish smuggler Captain James Henderson’s offer of passage on his ship, she gets more than she bargains for. The first person narrative that Lee espoused has become so ubiquitous that the ever-perceptive stpauli was surprised to find a crime debut told through a third person, present tense narrative. Expecting to be irritated by it, she found herself pleasantly surprised to the extent of recommending it as a good holiday read. For me the fascination is always in asking the question: where do we come from?’ It’s the summer of 1822 and Edinburgh is abuzz with rumour of King George IV’s impending visit. In botanical circles, however, a different kind of excitement has gripped the city. In the newly-installed Botanic Garden, the Agave Americana plant looks set to flower – an event that only occurs once every few decades. So begins the tale, and – no spoilers – fantastic read awaits. Author Sara Sheridan tells us more.

The Fair Botanists by Sara Sheridan | Hachette UK The Fair Botanists by Sara Sheridan | Hachette UK

It’s the summer of 1822 and Edinburgh is abuzz with rumours of King George IV’s impending visit. In botanical circles, however, a different kind of excitement has gripped the city. In the newly-installed Botanic Garden, the Agave Americana plant looks set to flower – an event that only occurs once every few decades. Perfume is a big part of my world so it was genuinely fun writing directly about that – though there are always smells in my novels, this time I got to the nub of the thing! It was also lovely to explore the connections in my home town – so much of the built environment in Edinburgh is still there, though the city boundary used to be at the Water of Leith. I was also surprised at the level of industry along the water– one of Scotland’s biggest distilleries was at Canonmills and I have one character in the book who works there… Your work always shines a light on women’s stories that history has overlooked. How have these stories shaped your thinking about our shared history?Her first book, Truth or Dare, featured in the Sunday Times Top 50 and was nominated for the Saltire Prize. In 2015 Sara was named one of the Saltire Society’s 365 most influential Scottish women, past and present. She sits on the Committee of the Society of Authors in Scotland and is also on the board of the UK-wide writers’ collective ‘26’, taking part in the acclaimed 26 Treasures project in 2010 at the V&A, in 2011 at National Museum of Scotland and in 2012 at the Children’s Museum, Bethnal Green. We were so pleased to see you add in your passion for perfume in The Fair Botanists. Can you tell us more about what you love about perfume creation? Brighton,1957: Mirabelle Bevan can’t resist a cry for help, be it the little girl at a seaside sanatorium who is getting bullied or the strange behaviour of Uma, the Indian nurse who is looking after her. Intrigued she soon finds herself drawn into a spider’s web of connections between an upmarket brothel, local priest Father Grogan, a man’s body washed up on Brighton beach and a missing nursing sister. So many things! I learned a lot about the sex trade in the city during the Georgian period, which was legion! And the way the legal system dealt with (mainly female) sex workers. In that there are echoes that reverberate today into the way women are treated by our culture in the process of rape cases. The patriarchy is still at it! And there is more we have to endure as we also have far less water now to help nurture our trees – just as the climate is in crisis. The Israelis, who control 85% of our water, regularly cut off our supplies. Yet Israel has built up water reserves for 30 years.