What if Nature Was Magic?: A Guest Post by Pari Thomson

Greenwild is a book that grew from a single seed: a question that took root in my mind as I wrote, and unfurled into something big and wild. What if nature was magic? What would that world look like?

The answer, for me, is the world that Daisy Thistledown discovers when she steps through a hidden doorway into the Greenwild. It’s a world where you can set sail on a lily-pad boat, and become invisible by eating a magic seed. A world where vines move of their own accord, where children grow chocolate on trees, and where people called Botanists fight to protect magical plant specimens and stop them from going extinct.  

My main character, Daisy, is called after a flower that might seem ordinary and commonplace at first glance – but which holds magic in its petals. Named for the sun, the ‘day’s eye’ is a flower that symbolises brightness and warmth, and which turns to follow the position of the sun through the sky. Daisy begins the story feeling ordinary and unexceptional – but she slowly learns that she has just as much magic and brightness within her as the tiny, gold-hearted flower she is named for. 

Exploring the Greenwild, Daisy soon discovers an ancient tree called the Heart Oak, which supports all of the magic around it. The oak represents steadfast solidity and endurance. It is a mighty tree that grows from the smallest of beginnings, the tiny acorn: a transformation which is its own kind of magic. The oak is also a deeply nurturing tree, known to shelter and support over two thousand different wildlife species. Oaks can provide a haven for swallows, butterflies, wood mice, badgers, mosses, owls, and mushrooms, and they remain a shining symbol of community and diversity in our divided world.

The Greenwild is home to many other astonishing plants, from venomous flytraps to singing camellias. But perhaps the rarest and most astonishing of them all is the legendary Whishogg. This magical pomegranate contains a ruby seed with the power to grant a single wish, and was inspired by my Persian heritage and the stories my mother told me as a child.

Perhaps the simplest and most joyous plant you’ll find in the Greenwild, however, is the sunflower. These glorious, celebratory flowers spring up from tiny seeds and look like miniature suns. Like daisies, they follow the course of the sun through the sky – but unlike daisies, and they can grow up to ten feet tall. They are easy to nurture and care for, and you can do it at home with little more than a pot, some soil, and a sprinkle of water. Like all plants, sunflowers prove a great and universal truth: if you look closely enough, nature really is magic.