Green Kingdom - by Ben Dark (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

"Utterly fascinating. I don't expect to read a better work of natural history this year." --Bill Bryson - "Ben Dark has the unusual ability to see both the forest and the trees. A fascinating account of man's long and tangled association with plants." --Elizabeth Kolbert - "What an awesome book....I learned something on every page." --Nigel Slater

A captivating exploration of the weird and wonderful ways plants have found to survive and thrive for readers of The Serviceberry and The Invention of Nature.

Nearly four hundred thousand species of plants exist today, but many more have come and gone. What made these ones survive? Through the stories of sixteen plant families responsible for life's great innovations, Green Kingdom tells the epic tale of how plant-life emerged, adapted and came to shape our planet.

Beginning with the lowly mosses and working his way up the Tree of Life through the ferns, pines, palms, and ginkgoes to the giant water lilies that obsessed a generation of Victorian gardeners and beyond, Ben Dark reveals how plants developed stems, leaves, trunks and seeds, how flowers emerged and developed the capacity to create deadly poisons, intoxicating scents and parasitic entrapments. A passionate plantsman who delights in the strange ways of the natural world, he introduces us along the way to the adventurers, botanists, poets, inventors and taxonomers who pieced together this story over centuries of observation and inquiry, sometimes sacrificing their lives or losing their minds in service to their obsessions.

A single specimen alive today contains within it an epic story of adaptation and survival stretching back 400 million years. Time traveling to moments of near extinction and rebirth, Ben Dark reveals the many ways plants have shaped us, seeding our desires and sending roots into the deepest recesses of our imagination. A hymn to the inventiveness and interconnectedness of the natural world, bursting with life in all its permutations, this is a riotous family saga, as full of seduction and betrayal as any story ever told. "Elegant, erudite and entrancing. This is a book you'll want to read once for its fascinating information and colorful stories, and again, just for the sheer pleasure of it" (Robert Moor, New York Times bestselling author).

Review Quotes

"An epic story of 500 million years of evolution and adaptation, from the simplest bog mosses to ferns and evergreens to grasses and flowers and towering jungle trees. Through Dark's light and airy prose, horticulture, history, science, and culture intertwine like the tangled roots of a mangrove to celebrate the diversity and resilience of plants."
--Steve Brusatte, author of The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs

"Ben Dark has the unusual ability to see both the forest and the trees. Green Kingdom is at once closely observed, wonderfully far-ranging, and sharply written. It is a fascinating account of man's long and tangled association with plants."
--Elizabeth Kolbert, author of The Sixth Extinction

"Ben Dark is a fantastic writer: his ability to relate science through story is both brilliant and rare, and Green Kingdom--in its palatial scope, beautiful phrasing and companionable humanity--is an extraordinary example of his brimming talent."
--Matthew Collins, author of The Tree Atlas

"Ben Dark is a natural history writer of spectacular gifts. He can make a history of mosses into an adventure story full of luck and danger, monsters and meteorites. His prose is lucid and beautiful, and often witty. A wonderful book."
--Nicola Shulman, author of Graven with Diamonds

"Captivatingly written and philosophically insightful, Green Kingdom skillfully weaves together the wonder of botanical evolution with human history and folklore to create a profound yet joyfully entertaining read. Dammit, if I had written this, I would die happy."
--Jonathan Drori, author of Around the World in 80 Plants

"Utterly fascinating. I don't expect to read a better work of natural history this year."
--Bill Bryson, author of A Short History of Nearly Everything

"Elegant, erudite and entrancing. This is a book you'll want to read once for its fascinating information and colorful stories, and again, just for the sheer pleasure of it."
--Robert Moor, author of On Trails and In Trees

"What an awesome book. Illuminating, fascinating and superbly researched. Ben Dark is a master storyteller. I learned something on every page."
--Nigel Slater, author of Toast

"In Green Kingdom, Ben Dark - a worldwide, time-travelling storyteller - introduces us to characters with astonishing tales to tell. Dark wears his scholarship lightly and brilliantly, weaving an epic narrative with botanical research. His curiosity and enthusiasm make for an unputdownable read."
--Mary Keen, author of Diary of a Keen Gardener

"A wondrous journey through the kingdom of plants. Ben Dark engaged me every step of the way with his elegant mix of storytelling and science."
--Sue Stuart-Smith, author of The Well Gardened Mind

About the Author

Ben Dark is a landscape historian, award-winning broadcaster and former head gardener. He is the author of The Grove: A Nature Odyssey in 19 1/2 Front Gardens, chosen by The Daily Telegraph (London) as the best gardening book of the year, and the creator and host of the award-winning Garden Log and Dear Gardener podcasts. He holds an MA in garden and landscape history from the University of London, studied horticulture, and won Journalist of the Year at the Garden Media Guild awards for his magazine journalism.