- Hardcover: 288 pages
- Publisher: Profile Books; 1st ed edition (14 Oct 2010)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 184668076X
- ISBN-13: 978-1846680762
- Product Dimensions: 21.8 x 14.2 x 3.6 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 81,234 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Weeds: The Story of Outlaw Plants: A Cultural History
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More About the Author
Product Description
Review
'Mabey offers a diversity and richness of fact, fiction, philosophy and fun ... a great read.'
--Professor Stephen Hopper, Director, Kew Gardens
'Richard Mabey's journey through the realm of weeds is witty, learned and original.' -- Ronald Blythe
'A fascinating book, bursting with the witchy, elusive charms of the plant kingdom's most impudent operators' --Antony Woodward, Country Life
'A profound and sympathetic meditation' --Bee Wilson, Sunday Times
`A fascinating display of personal knowledge by a much admired nature writer.' --Peter Lewis, Daily Mail (online)
'Richard Mabey writes about weeds with the confident affection of someone discussing old friends' --Bella Bathurst, Observer
In 'Weeds', Mabey has written a memorable hymn to the marginal.' -- Andrew Motion, Guardian
`Mabey is the gardener's greatest comforter' -- Stephen Anderton, The Times
`Mabey is someone who not just sees beauty in nature but understands and enhances it.' --Guardian
'He never disappoints - buy this book for the gardener in your life, and convert them to the wonder of weeds' -- Guardian
'A wonderful exploration of our conflictual relationship with the plants we brand as weeds... a new outdoor classic.' --Telegraph - Outdoor book of the year
--Professor Stephen Hopper, Director, Kew Gardens
'Richard Mabey's journey through the realm of weeds is witty, learned and original.' -- Ronald Blythe
'A fascinating book, bursting with the witchy, elusive charms of the plant kingdom's most impudent operators' --Antony Woodward, Country Life
'A profound and sympathetic meditation' --Bee Wilson, Sunday Times
`A fascinating display of personal knowledge by a much admired nature writer.' --Peter Lewis, Daily Mail (online)
'Richard Mabey writes about weeds with the confident affection of someone discussing old friends' --Bella Bathurst, Observer
In 'Weeds', Mabey has written a memorable hymn to the marginal.' -- Andrew Motion, Guardian
`Mabey is the gardener's greatest comforter' -- Stephen Anderton, The Times
`Mabey is someone who not just sees beauty in nature but understands and enhances it.' --Guardian
'He never disappoints - buy this book for the gardener in your life, and convert them to the wonder of weeds' -- Guardian
'A wonderful exploration of our conflictual relationship with the plants we brand as weeds... a new outdoor classic.' --Telegraph - Outdoor book of the year
Book Description
A lively and lyrical cultural history of plants in the wrong place, by one of Britain's best and most admired nature writers
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
"Weeds" is a study of our relationship and understanding of plants which are growing in the wrong place.
A number of themes and ideas reoccur throughout the book - and a number of these will be familiar if you have read some of Mabey's other books. So, we have the stories of plants which have been brought into the UK from the far corners of the world that have now become familiar, we have the softening of urban landscapes through the growth of plants and we have John Clare - poet and appreciator of the small and the beautiful.
The chapters in the book are organized (loosely) around a single plant - and through that plant our relationship with weeds is explored. These relationships are explored in the USA, Australia and the UK - but predominantly the UK. (In fact one book about the impact of feral species in Australia comes in for some pointed criticism at one point, largely because of the use of language Mabey considers imprecise).
But the key theme (and this is identified in the sub-title of the book) is that weeds force us to reconsider what we mean by wild, or what we mean by natural. Ecosystems are not static, and weeds have become an important part of the dynamic ecosystems that have been created by man.
In many ways this book is an extension of "The Unofficial Countryside" which was published by Maybey in the 1970's. In fact a number of pages of this book are a summary of parts of this earlier publication and a number of the anecdotes about weeds occur in both books. While this is not really a problem it is rather frustrating if (like me) you have read the earlier book within the last few months.
This is a book that sets out to challenge the idea the "weeds are bad" (my words) in all circumstances and as such makes valuable reading if you are interested in the development of modern human influence ecosystems and our relationship to the plants within them.
This should not be taken as meaning this is a "heavy" or "over-serious" book - far from it. It is written with Mabey's familiar style and passion and in a few places it actually and intentionally funny.
If you are already a fan of Mabey's work you will enjoy this book, and it should also appeal to new readers of the author. Recommended.
A number of themes and ideas reoccur throughout the book - and a number of these will be familiar if you have read some of Mabey's other books. So, we have the stories of plants which have been brought into the UK from the far corners of the world that have now become familiar, we have the softening of urban landscapes through the growth of plants and we have John Clare - poet and appreciator of the small and the beautiful.
The chapters in the book are organized (loosely) around a single plant - and through that plant our relationship with weeds is explored. These relationships are explored in the USA, Australia and the UK - but predominantly the UK. (In fact one book about the impact of feral species in Australia comes in for some pointed criticism at one point, largely because of the use of language Mabey considers imprecise).
But the key theme (and this is identified in the sub-title of the book) is that weeds force us to reconsider what we mean by wild, or what we mean by natural. Ecosystems are not static, and weeds have become an important part of the dynamic ecosystems that have been created by man.
In many ways this book is an extension of "The Unofficial Countryside" which was published by Maybey in the 1970's. In fact a number of pages of this book are a summary of parts of this earlier publication and a number of the anecdotes about weeds occur in both books. While this is not really a problem it is rather frustrating if (like me) you have read the earlier book within the last few months.
This is a book that sets out to challenge the idea the "weeds are bad" (my words) in all circumstances and as such makes valuable reading if you are interested in the development of modern human influence ecosystems and our relationship to the plants within them.
This should not be taken as meaning this is a "heavy" or "over-serious" book - far from it. It is written with Mabey's familiar style and passion and in a few places it actually and intentionally funny.
If you are already a fan of Mabey's work you will enjoy this book, and it should also appeal to new readers of the author. Recommended.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
In 'Weeds', Richard Mabey has shown himself to be a true Renaissance Man. As he explores weeds and their history with man (for without man, there are no weeds), he effortlessly combines history and myth with science, art, literature and architecture. And he does it using language that makes no attempt to dumb itself down to the lowest common denominator, and yet to the literate reader is as enthralling and readable as mass-market paperbacks are to the masses.
The book itself is divided into twelve chapters, each given the common name of a plant that is considered to be a weed. But the chapters aren't mere discussions of the virtues (or not) of that plant, they have wide-ranging themes and touch on many plants and their stories. They are all tied together by the main story arc of how our perceptions of weeds have changed through the ages, and scattered with entertaining anecdotes. In 'Adonis', for example, we discover that Edward Salisbury raised more than 20 species of plant from the debris he found in his trouser turn-ups!
'Knotgrass' looks at the way weeds and theology have become entwined through the ages and how that has coloured our view of them. It's all caught up with the development of agriculture (before which 'weeds' as a concept did not exist) and the simultaneous advent of a life of toil and strife, before which we lived free and easy lives as hunter gatherers and weren't cursed by pestilent weeds.
'Self-heal' discusses the different ways that medicinal plants have been selected since history began, including the Doctrine of Signatures that professes that a plant's medicinal qualities (and the ailments they cure) can be seen in their form by an experienced practitioner. There's an echo of these ideas later on in 'Burdock' when Mabey revisits Ruskin's attempt to classify plant species on the basis of their aesthetic qualities, at a time when our understanding of botany and evolution was beginning to give us a real understanding of why plants grow in the way the do.
I got bogged down in 'Love-in-idleness', which is about the presence of plants in literature. Shakespeare I can cope with, but as I have no appreciation of poetry the latter half of the chapter was heavy going. I skipped it and moved on to 'Gallant Soldier', which is fascinating because it talks about the ways in which weeds are transported around the world, and also because it mentions locations with which I am more than familiar. Mabey makes it clear that the biosecurity genie is well and truly out of the bottle. We have been transporting plants around the globe - on purpose and unwittingly - for as long as we have been on it.
Mabey rounds out the book with a glossary of plant names, a bibliography and an index and his hope that whilst our concept of weeds is an indication of our separation from the natural world, their habit of refusing to accept or acknowledge boundaries could show us the route back to a life more in tune with nature. If you have even a passing interest in plants and their impact on our lives, this is an essential read.
The book itself is divided into twelve chapters, each given the common name of a plant that is considered to be a weed. But the chapters aren't mere discussions of the virtues (or not) of that plant, they have wide-ranging themes and touch on many plants and their stories. They are all tied together by the main story arc of how our perceptions of weeds have changed through the ages, and scattered with entertaining anecdotes. In 'Adonis', for example, we discover that Edward Salisbury raised more than 20 species of plant from the debris he found in his trouser turn-ups!
'Knotgrass' looks at the way weeds and theology have become entwined through the ages and how that has coloured our view of them. It's all caught up with the development of agriculture (before which 'weeds' as a concept did not exist) and the simultaneous advent of a life of toil and strife, before which we lived free and easy lives as hunter gatherers and weren't cursed by pestilent weeds.
'Self-heal' discusses the different ways that medicinal plants have been selected since history began, including the Doctrine of Signatures that professes that a plant's medicinal qualities (and the ailments they cure) can be seen in their form by an experienced practitioner. There's an echo of these ideas later on in 'Burdock' when Mabey revisits Ruskin's attempt to classify plant species on the basis of their aesthetic qualities, at a time when our understanding of botany and evolution was beginning to give us a real understanding of why plants grow in the way the do.
I got bogged down in 'Love-in-idleness', which is about the presence of plants in literature. Shakespeare I can cope with, but as I have no appreciation of poetry the latter half of the chapter was heavy going. I skipped it and moved on to 'Gallant Soldier', which is fascinating because it talks about the ways in which weeds are transported around the world, and also because it mentions locations with which I am more than familiar. Mabey makes it clear that the biosecurity genie is well and truly out of the bottle. We have been transporting plants around the globe - on purpose and unwittingly - for as long as we have been on it.
Mabey rounds out the book with a glossary of plant names, a bibliography and an index and his hope that whilst our concept of weeds is an indication of our separation from the natural world, their habit of refusing to accept or acknowledge boundaries could show us the route back to a life more in tune with nature. If you have even a passing interest in plants and their impact on our lives, this is an essential read.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I didn't particularly expect to enjoy this book - my father-in-law, who's a keen gardener, absolutely hated it, which was the main reason I picked up his copy: to see if it was quite as bad as he said it was - and to my surprise found it completely fascinating. That may, however, be because though I have a garden, I wouldn't describe myself as a gardener, so the mistakes spotted by other reviewers went straight over my head. I do happen to know a bit about the Civil War, though, and though Mabey may perhaps be excused for thinking, perhaps due to his title, that the Earl of Essex was a Royalist commander, when in fact he was a Parliamentarian, which makes the anecdote in which he appears fairly meaningless, a decent editor or proofreader really ought to have picked it up. That was the most obvious non-horticultural solecism, so the comments elsewhere about accuracy are probably pretty close to the mark. I can well understand, therefore, that an expert would find this book infuriating, but as a layman it had me gripped. Whether saying that a book's appeal is to to the ignorant really counts as a recommendation, I'm not sure, but as a gardening dunce I'd give it a hearty 9 out of 10.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Weeds:The Story of Outlaw Plants: A Cultural History
A fascinating account of reasons why plants are sometimes labelled 'weeds' and the same plants sometimes nurtured and encouraged. Read more
Published 5 days ago by guernseygirl
a delight
A wonderful book from which I learned a lot about not only weeds but Shakespeare, the Garden of Eden myth and so much more. I especially liked the names of the weeds. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Mr. P. Skeldon
Mabey Weeds
A book that can be read under the covers, dipped into or devoured, and which reveals much about the thinking of Richard Mabey. Read more
Published 6 months ago by Percy
Great idea...
A fairly good read though somewhat UK-centric in terms of plant names: the Glossary helps but the length gives some idea of the variety of weeds covered in the text. Read more
Published 6 months ago by Takahe
So-so
Bought this for my father last Christmas as he is an avid gardener, reader and a lover of history so I thought this was the ultimate combination. Read more
Published 6 months ago by Pen
Weeds by R Mabey
A book on weeds, without proper identifying illustrations? How utterly inadequate. Line drawings just do not do the job. Read more
Published 10 months ago by Simon
love your weeds!
After reading this I no longer get dispirited about the weeds in my garden. I view them with curiousity (how far DO the roots of my bindweed go down?). Read more
Published 11 months ago by Ellie
the perfect bedside book for gardeners and amateur botanists
Why no one gave me this for Christmas I can't think; I ended up buying my own and haven't had my nose out of it since. Read more
Published 16 months ago by Mrs. F. Green
Weeds - interesting but the accuracy!
I quite liked the book, but the accuracy of the some of the content and the grammer were both poor. For instance Japanese knotweed (the number 1 weed in the UK) was confused with... Read more
Published 19 months ago by Snail
A new way to look at weeds
Wonderful story of the plants most of us either turf out or try to ignore!
Weeds can be immensely aggravating but they can also be incredibly beautiful and this book... Read more
Weeds can be immensely aggravating but they can also be incredibly beautiful and this book... Read more
Published 19 months ago by Mary S
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