The Star-Nosed Mole: An Anthology of Scented Garden Writing
After publishing Scent Magic, an acclaimed memoir of plants, gardens and scent, Isabel Bannerman couldn’t leave the subject alone.

‘I came across the star-nosed mole, an adorable and preposterous creature with a highly specialized sensory-motor organ, while writing about the riches of the soil kingdom … and, somewhat mole-like … as I was trying to write about the impossibility of writing effectively about smell, I began to nose around for great writers’ solutions to this problem. How and how much have writers considered the lilies of the field and how they smell. I began grazing on literature and gathering in my stores of quotes.’

In reviews of Scent Magic, Isabel was lauded for ‘putting into words what so much escapes language. With a wonderful range of reference and allusion, it's nothing less than poetry... (Evening Standard)’. And in this anthology, with her beautifully written linking passages bringing carefully chosen quotations together with her dramatic, powerful and mysterious plant images, she evokes the scented garden through poetry and prose spanning millennia, from Ovid to Proust, Milton to George Eliot, and Emily Dickinson to Alice Oswald.

1139711992
The Star-Nosed Mole: An Anthology of Scented Garden Writing
After publishing Scent Magic, an acclaimed memoir of plants, gardens and scent, Isabel Bannerman couldn’t leave the subject alone.

‘I came across the star-nosed mole, an adorable and preposterous creature with a highly specialized sensory-motor organ, while writing about the riches of the soil kingdom … and, somewhat mole-like … as I was trying to write about the impossibility of writing effectively about smell, I began to nose around for great writers’ solutions to this problem. How and how much have writers considered the lilies of the field and how they smell. I began grazing on literature and gathering in my stores of quotes.’

In reviews of Scent Magic, Isabel was lauded for ‘putting into words what so much escapes language. With a wonderful range of reference and allusion, it's nothing less than poetry... (Evening Standard)’. And in this anthology, with her beautifully written linking passages bringing carefully chosen quotations together with her dramatic, powerful and mysterious plant images, she evokes the scented garden through poetry and prose spanning millennia, from Ovid to Proust, Milton to George Eliot, and Emily Dickinson to Alice Oswald.

27.95 In Stock
The Star-Nosed Mole: An Anthology of Scented Garden Writing

The Star-Nosed Mole: An Anthology of Scented Garden Writing

by Isabel Bannerman
Alternative view 1 of The Star-Nosed Mole: An Anthology of Scented Garden Writing
Alternative view 2 of The Star-Nosed Mole: An Anthology of Scented Garden Writing
Alternative view 3 of The Star-Nosed Mole: An Anthology of Scented Garden Writing
Alternative view 4 of The Star-Nosed Mole: An Anthology of Scented Garden Writing
Alternative view 5 of The Star-Nosed Mole: An Anthology of Scented Garden Writing
Alternative view 6 of The Star-Nosed Mole: An Anthology of Scented Garden Writing
Alternative view 7 of The Star-Nosed Mole: An Anthology of Scented Garden Writing
Alternative view 8 of The Star-Nosed Mole: An Anthology of Scented Garden Writing
Alternative view 9 of The Star-Nosed Mole: An Anthology of Scented Garden Writing
The Star-Nosed Mole: An Anthology of Scented Garden Writing

The Star-Nosed Mole: An Anthology of Scented Garden Writing

by Isabel Bannerman

Overview

After publishing Scent Magic, an acclaimed memoir of plants, gardens and scent, Isabel Bannerman couldn’t leave the subject alone.

‘I came across the star-nosed mole, an adorable and preposterous creature with a highly specialized sensory-motor organ, while writing about the riches of the soil kingdom … and, somewhat mole-like … as I was trying to write about the impossibility of writing effectively about smell, I began to nose around for great writers’ solutions to this problem. How and how much have writers considered the lilies of the field and how they smell. I began grazing on literature and gathering in my stores of quotes.’

In reviews of Scent Magic, Isabel was lauded for ‘putting into words what so much escapes language. With a wonderful range of reference and allusion, it's nothing less than poetry... (Evening Standard)’. And in this anthology, with her beautifully written linking passages bringing carefully chosen quotations together with her dramatic, powerful and mysterious plant images, she evokes the scented garden through poetry and prose spanning millennia, from Ovid to Proust, Milton to George Eliot, and Emily Dickinson to Alice Oswald.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781910258453
Publisher: Gemini Books Group
Publication date: 05/01/2022
Pages: 144
Product dimensions: 6.90(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Garden designer Isabel Bannerman and her husband, Julian, have won Gold Medals at Chelsea and designed gardens for a wide range of people, including HRH The Prince of Wales and many clients from the worlds of fashion and film. They also designed the British 9/11 Memorial Garden in New York. Isabel has always taken photographs and she began making her particular style of botanical scans in 2003. She has had four solo shows of her work, which is in collections including those of of Jasper Conran and Richard E. Grant. She wrote and photographed Landscape Of Dreams (Pimpernel Press, 2016), describing fourteen of the many gardens the Bannermans have created. Her second book, Scent Magic, was published by Pimpernel Press in 2019.

Table of Contents

The Star-Nosed Mole 7

Introduction 11

Christmas 17

Deep Winter January 21

Midwinter Spring February 29

Natures First Green is Gold March 35

Violets and Mimosa 42

Lilac-Tide April 49

Lusty Hawthorn & Blossom May 55

Syringahood June 63

Hay, Grass, Coumarin July 71

Lime Flowers and Tea Thereof 76

Luscious Sweet August 81

Bees 94

Memory September 111

Autumn Decay October 121

Dying Scents November & December 133

Afterword: Home, Sensory Perception and the Umwelt 137

List of Illustrations 143

Acknowledgements 144

From the B&N Reads Blog
Page 1 of

Related Subjects

Literature
Anthologies
General & Miscellaneous Literature Anthologies
Literature Anthologies - General & Miscellaneous
Literature
Anthologies
General & Miscellaneous Literature Anthologies
Literature Anthologies - General & Miscellaneous

Customer Reviews