MAYER WAKEFIELD has reservations about the direction of a play centered on a DVLA re-training session for three British-Pakistani motorists
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Flowers that will not fade
This lavish book transcends the botanical by discussing the flowers’ social, historical and symbolic significance, writes CHRISTINE LINDEY
(L to R) Albrecht Durer, Tuft of Cowslips or Primula (1526); Anonymous, gold ornaments, c2300–2100 BC; Mary Cassat, Lilacs in a Window of 1880-83 and (bottom middle) Pierre-Joseph Redoute, Amaryllis josephina from Les Liliacees, 1802–16
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JOHN GREEN relishes photography that unfolds a longstanding and poetic relationship with Leeds
A uncomfortably misogynistic authorial voice that sometimes seems to lack insight troubles FIONA O’CONNOR
MARY CONWAY is disappointed by a production that panders – if inadvertently – to Western prejudice against China
JOHN GREEN is fascinated by a history that excavates the enormous role played by agricultural workers in recent times
ALEX HALL recommends a book that places empirical evidence at the heart of understanding racism
Flower: Exploring the World in Bloom,
by Anna Pavord,
Phaidon Press
£39.95
AT 350 pages this large format book offers beautiful, full-page illustrations of a vast variety of flowers accompanied by useful information about each one.
A stimulating introduction discusses their social, historical and symbolic significance.
Unlike most botanical books it also functions as an art book with illustrations which range far and wide across time, cultures and types of objects. A gilded Sevres porcelain plate destined for the 19th-century courts of Europe is ornately hand painted with a central bouquet of flowers surrounded by butterflies, bows and scrolls.
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