Weeds

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From dandelions to poison ivy, stinging nettles to crabgrass, weeds are familiar, pervasive and seemingly invincible; they ride out ice ages, natural catastrophes, global wars, and they mark our movement across continents and centuries as indelibly as languages. Yet they are often the scourge of our lawns and gardens, saboteurs of our best-laid plans, enemies of the people. Why are weeds so widely vilified, even despised? And why can the same plant be considered beautiful in some places but be deemed a menace in others?

In Weeds, renowned nature writer Richard Mabey embarks on an engaging journey through the cultural history of these vagabond plants with the verve and historical breadth of Michael Pollan. Mabey combines natural history, botanical science, and his own travels as he considers how “botanical thugs” destroy whole ecosystems, and he champions the cause of those that green over war zones and derelict cities. He explores how weeds have been portrayed from the Bible to Shakespeare, from Walden to Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

“Richard Mabey is Britain’s leading natural history writer, and this is his witty and beguiling meditation on weeds and their wily ways. . . . This extraordinary book challenges notions of both culture and agriculture. You will never look at a weed, or flourish a garden fork, in the same way again.”-Richard Holmes, author of The Age of Wonder