Daringly innovative when it opened in 1848,the Palm House in Kew Gardens remains one of the most beautiful glass buildings in the world today.
Seemingly weightless,vast and yet light,the Palm House floats free from architectural convention,at once monumental and ethereal. From a distance,the crowns of the palms within are silhouetted in the central dome; close to,banana leaves thrust themselves against the glass. To enter it is to enter a tropical fantasy. The body is assaulted by heat,light and the smell of damp vegetation.
In Palace of Palms,Kate Teltscher tells the extraordinary story of its creation and of the Victorians'obsession with the palms that filled it. It is a story of breathtaking ambition,of scientific discovery and,crucially,of the remarkable men whose vision it was. The Palm House was commissioned by the charismatic first Director of Kew,Sir William Hooker,designed by the audacious Irish engineer,Richard Turner,and managed by Kew's forthright curator,John Smith,who battled with boilers and floods to ensure the survival of the rare and wondrous plants it housed.
Publisher: Pan MacmillanISBN: 9781529004885Number of pages: 400Weight: 313 gDimensions: 197 x 130 x 25 mm
MEDIA REVIEWS
'The most enthralling historical book I've read this year.'- Claire Tomalin,New StatesmanBooks of the Year
'Teltscher skilfully brings to life the human story behind the growth of Kew and the creation of its extraordinary centrepiece. What's more remarkable,however,is her command of the details of the new technology that went into the construction of the Palm House...she makes such matters unexpectedly fascinating.'- Literary Review
'A fascinating and rip-roaring account of the building of one of the great - and experimental - glass buildings of the Victorian age.'- Daily Telegraph
'A glorious green adventure story.'- Ann Treneman,The TimesBooks of the Year
'Stories of botanical exploration are combined with biographies of the characters behind the famous building,transporting the reader to 19th-century London and the countries that supplied the palms for the glasshouse. One can only marvel at the scale of the achievement and feel humbled by how much we owe to the enslaved peoples who enabled countless plants to be brought to our shores from the colonies.'- Rachel de Thame,Sunday Times
'The fascinating story of one of the greatest showpieces of Victorian Britain: the Palm House in Kew Gardens.'- Sam Leith,The Spectator
'The story of the creation of the Palm House and the men whose vision it was,are engrossingly told.'- Choice Magazine
'I stand corrected by this exhilarating book - but also delighted,astounded and vastly entertained...This is gardening history at its best - a sparkling window on the colourful and contradictory Victorian era.'- Ambra Edwards,The Garden
'Lively...vividly drawn...wearing her research lightly,Teltscher tells her tale of politicking and financial wrangles,domestic tragedies and epic plant hunting expeditions with a pace and vibrancy more commonly found in novels than in academic study.'- Gardens Illustrated
'Kate Teltscher skilfully distils the historical facts of the creation of the Palm House into a piece of storytelling that is difficult to put down.'- English Garden
'Not since Anna Pavord's The Tulip has a book so brilliantly captured the spirit of its subject. Kate Teltscher's Palace of Palms is a glorious headrush into Victorian history via one of the most iconic and beautiful glasshouses in the world. This is a bright,shining jewel of a book,a hedonists'delight and an escapists'antidote to the humdrum.'- Amanda Foreman
'In this fascinating book,Kate Teltscher introduces us not just to the Palm House at Kew,but to the world of the palm. In so doing,she roams from botany and horticulture,through plant hunting expeditions and literary traditions,to engineering and architecture. Some of the people met on this journey are the privileged members of society,some technical geniuses,others working men who toiled in gruelling conditions to transport a tropical world to Victorian London.'- Margaret Willes,author of The Gardens of the British Working Class
'Teltscher is a remarkable new historian...wholly original'- William Dalrymple
'This book gives a marvelous glimpse into a lost and luscious Victorian world,peopled not only with plants but with energetic,ambitious - and sometimes frankly bonkers - characters.'- Lucy Worsley
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