The Tulip by Anna Pavord

DESCRIPTION:

The Tulip is not a gardening book. It is the study of a flower that has made men mad. Greed, desire, anguish and devotion have all played their part in the development of the tulip into the world-wide phenomenon it is today. No other flower has ever carried so much cultural baggage; it charts political upheavals, illuminates social behaviour, mirrors economic booms and busts, plots the ebb and flow of religious persecution. Pavord tells how the tulip arrived from Turkey and took the whole of Western Europe by storm. Sumptuously illustrated from a wide range of sources, this volume should become a unique source book, a universal gift book and a joy to all who possess it.

REVIEW:

Tulips... they are the most perfect creation in the world... Most women would melt at the sight of a rose... for me it is Tulips. Trying to win me over... show up with white Tulips and we will get along just fine. So when my boyfriend gifted me with this precious book on my name day I melted( We celebrate name days in Eastern Europe: it is like a second birthday.. but hey would you complain if you get more presents?! I wouldn't!).

The book is filled with all those worthy names, impossible dates and genera Tulipa which made it a very heavy reading. But when you see that Anna Pavord is not only a journalist but also a professional gardener and author of serious gardening books, you can understand why parts of "The Tulip" rip along as if a historical novel and others become very heavy and documentary. Personally, I had no problem with the language or the facts, hey, I am a British Major after all, but I understand why some might find it an overwhelming read. For me 'The Tulip' is the perfect coffee-table book to delve in and out of.

Impressively researched, engagingly written, it is a product of love and devotion. It is not for the common reader, that is why it is so daftly misunderstood... This is not a book to read on one go, it is a book you come back to over and over... Forever. Every time you'll find something different. That's a book for the real readers, it is not a paperback that you just read and toss, never to think or remember about. I am sorry, if that offends all the people who didn't like it, but it takes profanity to understand some things. I am in love with the book and the author!