{"product_id":"9781911709985","title":"How Flowers Made Our World","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eHow Flowers Made Our World\u003c\/i\u003e, biologist David George Haskell redefines our understanding of flowers, casting them as powerful revolutionaries at the heart of Earth's story.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Flowering plants as you've never seen them before ... Science writing with sensuality, sensitivity and soul.' Cal Flyn, author of  \u003ci\u003eIslands of Abandonment \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'\u003cb\u003eVividly written.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cb\u003eDavid George Haskell shows how the most trivialized part of the natural world is among its most powerful and essential.'\u003c\/b\u003e -\u003cb\u003eRebecca Solnit, author of \u003ci\u003eOrwell's Roses\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e'\u003c\/i\u003eDavid George Haskell's great strength as a writer is that he is open to surprise. He regards the planet as a strange and beautiful place. \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eHow Flowers Made Our World\u003c\/i\u003e is at once closely observed, richly reported, and mind-blowing.'-Elizabeth Kolbert, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Sixth Extinction\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFar from being mere ornaments, flowers have shaped the very fabric of life on our planet. Their evolution triggered a cascade of biodiversity, transforming oceans, creating new habitats, and even altering the climate. Their beauty turned adversaries into allies, and their adaptability turned environmental upheavals into opportunities for renewal.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWeaving together vivid storytelling, lyrical writing, and cutting-edge science, Haskell illuminates flowers as portals into deep time and essential players in our ecological future. He reveals how flowers built and sustained ecosystems from rainforests to prairies and have been pivotal in the evolution of species like butterflies, bees, and birds. He also uncovers their crucial role in human history, as cultural emblems, keys to scientific leaps, and evolutionary catalysts, with flowering grasses calling our ancestors to leave the trees, laying the foundation for agriculture and modern civilization.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFrom lessons in resilience and creativity found among gardeners' favourites, such as magnolias, orchids, and roses, to rediscovering lesser-known wonders, like our uncelebrated underwater meadows that sustain life and the secrets of our most humble wildflowers, \u003ci\u003eHow Flowers Made Our World\u003c\/i\u003e invites readers to see these blooms in a whole new light-as the dynamic and influential forces they truly are.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'In this dazzling book, scintillating with wonder and scholarship, Haskell shows us how flowers - so often belittled and misunderstood, have shaped ecology, and so shaped us. Flowers are tectonic, and here is a book worthy of them.'-Charles Foster, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Edges of the World\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'Joyful ...\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cb\u003ebrimming with curiosity, humour, and crystal-clear scientific delights. \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eHow Flowers Made Our World\u003c\/i\u003e is a celebration of the inventiveness of floral life.'\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cb\u003eZoë Schlanger, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Light Eaters\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"George, Haskell, David","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57535153504630,"sku":"9781911709985","price":22.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1208\/4146\/files\/9781911709985.jpg?v=1774276974","url":"https:\/\/chepstowbooks.co.uk\/products\/9781911709985","provider":"Chepstow Books \u0026 Gifts","version":"1.0","type":"link"}