Book Review: The Fair Botanists, by Sara Sheridan🌿

It is 1822 in Edinburgh at the old Botanic Cottage and a forest of plants is moving down the street in Leith: 'It is an extraordinary sight. Alder and ash, cedar and fir, oak and willow, trees of twenty, thirty, forty feet transplanted into huge wooden barrels proceeding one behind the other, the carthorses bend to their task, hauling them up the gentle slope, the huge wheels turning slowly as they make their way towards town.' This is the opening page of The Fair Botanists... and I was immediately hooked.

Sara Sheridan explores the history of the Royal Botanic Gardens through fiction. I was thrilled to have found a signed edition of the book at the Royal Botanic Gardens itself, which added a dash of intimacy and personalisation to my reading experience.

The Fair Botanists explores two women whose botanical fates become intertwined with the Botanics itself. Sheridan's research into the history of the Botanics and the history of Botany is wonderfully illustrated in her narrative. Indeed, I work close to the Botanics, so it was a treasure to pass by the places within the story each morning: Great King Street, Warriston Crescent, Tanfield, and, of course, the Botanics itself. So much of Edinburgh's history is woven throughout The Fair Botanists and local Edinburgh readers will delight in recognising historic events and landmarks within the story, such as George IV's arrival, Sir Walter Scott's gregarious personality and the development of the New Town. Even nods towards Tennent's lager made me chuckle 😉.

I enjoyed how Sara Sheridan included the popular art of botanical illustration into the story, which, in real life, included many unrecognised women. Her storyline is compelling, but it is how she artfully utilised her primary research into the story that excited me as an historian--to make the history come alive. I especially enjoyed how the plot encircled one plant, the Agave Americana. I was fortunate enough to see its gargantuan asparagus-like stem a few years ago when I worked at the Herbarium at the Botanics!

The Fair Botanists is a novel that any garden-enthusiast would enjoy, from botanists to garden historians.

I give it 5 🪴🪴🪴🪴🪴/5!