The Palm House at Kew has been one of Britain's most popular attractions since it opened in 1848 - this is the story of its creation and the men whose vision it was.
Kate Teltscher is an Emeritus Fellow of the School of Humanities at the University of Roehampton, Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, and Honorary Research Associate at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. As a cultural historian, her research has focused on colonial contact between Britain and Asia and she is the author of two acclaimed books, India Inscribed: European and British Writing on India, 1600-1800 and The High Road to China: George Bogle, the Panchen Lama and the First British Expedition to Tibet, which was shortlisted for the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Biography. She lives in south-west London with her family.
The most enthralling historical book I’ve read this year.
*New Statesman 'Books of the year'*
Teltscher skilfully brings to life the human story behind the
growth of Kew and the creation of its extraordinary centrepiece.
What's more remarkable, however, is her command of the details of
the new technology that went into the construction of the Palm
House . . . she makes such matters unexpectedly fascinating.
*Literary Review*
A fascinating and rip-roaring account of the building of one of the
great – and experimental – glass buildings of the Victorian
age.
*Daily Telegraph*
A glorious green adventure story.
*The Times 'Books of the Year'*
Stories of botanical exploration are combined with biographies of
the characters behind the famous building, transporting the reader
to 19th-century London and the countries that supplied the palms
for the glasshouse. One can only marvel at the scale of the
achievement and feel humbled by how much we owe to the enslaved
peoples who enabled countless plants to be brought to our shores
from the colonies.
*Sunday Times*
The fascinating story of one of the greatest showpieces of
Victorian Britain: the Palm House in Kew Gardens.
*Spectator*
The story of the creation of the Palm House and the men whose
vision it was, are engrossingly told.
*Choice Magazine 'Hardback Book of Month'*
I stand corrected by this exhilarating book - but also delighted,
astounded and vastly entertained . . . This is gardening history at
its best - a sparkling window on the colourful and contradictory
Victorian era.
*The Garden*
This beautifully crafted book invokes a world of breathtaking
Victorian engineering, glass houses and lush tropical vegetation to
tell a tale of exploration, botanical science and the making of new
imaginaries.
*Vinita Damodaran, Professor of South Asian History and Director,
Centre for World Environmental History, University of Sussex*
Lively . . . vividly drawn . . . Wearing her research lightly,
Teltscher tells her tale of politicking and financial wrangles,
domestic tragedies and epic plant hunting expeditions with a pace
and vibrancy more commonly found in novels than in academic
study.
*Gardens Illustrated*
Kate Teltscher skilfully distils the historical facts of the
creation of the Palm House into a piece of storytelling that is
difficult to put down.
*English Garden*
Truly, this is a work of which all interested in the history of
natural history and the history of botany should immediately take
note.
*The Well-read Naturalist*
The story of its [the Palm House's] creation and the plant
collections in it encompass all the qualities that make a great
story: personal ambition, disagreements, eccentricity, struggles,
fashions, fights and ultimately a building that triumphs.
*This England*
Not since Anna Pavord's The Tulip has a book so brilliantly
captured the spirit of its subject. Kate Teltscher's Palace of
Palms is a glorious headrush into Victorian history via one of the
most iconic and beautiful glasshouses in the world. This is a
bright, shining jewel of a book, a hedonists' delight and an
escapists' antidote to the humdrum.
*Amanda Foreman*
In this fascinating book, Kate Teltscher introduces us not just to
the Palm House at Kew, but to the world of the palm. In so doing,
she roams from botany and horticulture, through plant hunting
expeditions and literary traditions, to engineering and
architecture. Some of the people met on this journey are the
privileged members of society, some technical geniuses, others
working men who toiled in gruelling conditions to transport a
tropical world to Victorian London.
*Margaret Willes, author of The Gardens of the British Working
Class*
Teltscher is a remarkable new historian . . . wholly original
*William Dalrymple*
This book gives a marvelous glimpse into a lost and luscious
Victorian world, peopled not only with plants but with energetic,
ambitious - and sometimes frankly bonkers - characters.
*Lucy Worsley*
Kate Teltscher’s highly readable account breathes life into the key
characters and events that shaped the remarkable evolution of the
Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew during the 19th century, and its most
iconic building, the Palm House.
*Toby Musgrave*
The Palm House is unarguably the iconic building at Kew Gardens,
and in my opinion, the most beautiful glasshouse in the world. The
Victorians created this glorious temple to house their precious
palms and today, 170 years later, it continues to delight and awe
millions of visitors every year. This book tells its story.
*Richard Deverell, Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew*
The Palm House at Kew has been a world attraction since it was
opened in 1848 - and Kate Teltscher's brilliantly researched
account of the botanists and architects responsible is as thrilling
as a novel.
*Claire Tomalin*
The establishment of Kew Gardens and the building of the great Palm
House is a most remarkable story, that touches on every aspect of
19th century life. Kate Teltscher knows it all – the politics, the
science, the engineering – and writes about it with effortless
elegance to weave the most wonderfully compelling narrative.
*Michael Frayn*
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