By Any Other Name Book Reviews

By Any Other Name by Simon Morley Book Summary

A beautifully illustrated history of the Queen of Flowers and her enduring power in our gardens, art, religion and imagination.

‘Fascinating... I’ll never look at a rose in quite the same way again.’ Adrian Tinniswood

The rose is bursting with meaning. Over the centuries it has come to represent love and sensuality, deceit, death and the mystical unknown. Today the rose enjoys unrivalled popularity across the globe, ever present at life’s seminal moments.

Grown in the Middle East two thousand years ago for its pleasing scent and medicinal properties, it has become one of the most adored flowers across cultures, no longer selected by nature, but by us. The rose is well-versed at enchanting human hearts. From Shakespeare’s sonnets to Bulgaria’s Rose Valley to the thriving rose trade in Africa and the Far East, via museums, high fashion, Victorian England and Belle Epoque France, we meet an astonishing array of species and hybrids of remarkably different provenance.

This is the story of a hardy, thorny flower and how, by beauty and charm, it came to seduce the world.

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‘Fascinating material, surveyed with relish and acumen.’ Times Literary Supplement

‘Morley’s book is, in part, the story of how humans came to raise roses so consistently and abundantly that we demand them even in freezing February. First, though, By Any Other Name recounts the love affair with a flower that drove us to want to do that in the first place.’ Wall Street Journal

‘An intellectual and artistic journey… digging around the history of how roses have become entangled with human life. By Any Other Name will be a source of inspiration for us.’ Kim Wook-Kyun, President of the South Korea Rose Society

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By Any Other Name (Simon Morley) Book Reviews 2024

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