Victoria Dickenson traces the humble berrys journey across cultures and through the centuries with humour and passion. * Gardens Illustrated * Berries is a lovely physical object and just the right size to read in bed. It should appeal to cooks, food historians, and your average eater all cooped up this time of year who yearn to know more about the natural world. And from the opening pages, its full of surprises . . . Packed with facts, figures, and anecdotes, her book is a fascinating read. * Literary Review of Canada * This book brings to readers a beautifully packaged cultural and scientific exploration of some of the worlds favorite fruits. Dickenson, an amateur botanist, brings her skills with rare books and archives to the table as she highlights writings surrounding the history and lore of the berry across the centuries. The situation of berries in global culture is presented as a critical component of their history, and passages from the works of, e.g., Thoreau and Ovid provide context to Dickenson's characterization of the importance of berries throughout history . . . Recommended * Choice * I thoroughly enjoyed Berries, particularly since I always like learning about the scientific basis for the history of the classification of food plants . . . Berries are clearly a difficult food to classify, and Dickenson has managed to make the history of the taxonomy and cataloguing of these small fruits both entertaining and informative. * Digestible Bits and Bites * Berries is a visual feast. From the stunning front cover to the many colour illustrations the book is a joy to behold . . . there are no berries as delicious and satisfying as those that we grow or collect ourselves. This attractive and informative book helps us to appreciate them all the more. * OxVeg News * A book that will change the way you think about berries, familiar and unfamiliar. Beautifully written, packed with information and arresting ideas, all six chapters will appeal to a range of readers, who can savour the mouthwatering illustrations as much as the harvest and preserves of the kitchen. * Mark Laird, author of 'A Natural History of English Gardening' * What better way to sum up the books subject matter than to quote the author: Berries are botanically confusing, horticulturally complex and almost uniformly delicious truly the first fruits of the earth . . . And reading about them is a great way of wiling away the time until they are harvestable again. Berries by Victoria Dickenson is a great book on a great topic: Read it! * Botany One *
