A Rum Affair by Karl Sabbagh
As Heard on The Daily Gardener Podcast:
A Rum Affair by Karl Sabbagh
This book came out in 2016, and the subtitle is A True Story of Botanical Fraud.
In this book, Karl tells the story of the eminent British botanist John Heslop Harrison, who always went by the name Jack.
“Jack proposed a controversial theory: that vegetation on the islands off the west coast of Scotland had survived the last Ice Age.
Jack’s premise flew in the face of what most botanists believed - that no plants had survived the 10,000-year period of extreme cold.
But Jack had proof - the plants and grasses found on the isle of Rum.
What Jack didn't anticipate, however, was an amateur botanist called John Raven, who boldly questioned Jack’s theory.
This is the story of what happened when a tenacious amateur set out to find out the truth and how he uncovered a most extraordinary fraud.”
This book is 288 pages of an informative and amusing true story of botanical intrigue.
SI HORTUM IN HORTORIA PODCASTA IN BIBLIOTEHCA HABES, NIHIL DEERIT.
