Take a journey across continents and cultures to discover the endless ways artists and image-makers have employed floral motifs throughout history. With 316 color illustrations showcasing the diversity of blooms from all over the world, Flower spans a wide range of styles and media – from art, botanical illustrations, and sculptures to floral arrangements, film stills, and textiles – and follows a visually stunning sequence with works, regardless of period, thoughtfully paired to allow interesting and revealing juxtapositions between them. Flower follows in the footsteps of Plant, Exploring the Botanical World, which Martha Stewart Living described as “breathtaking.”

Featuring large-scale images and accessible texts Flower offers a comprehensive introduction to the subject and includes both much-loved works together with examples that may prove more surprising discoveries, even for specialists. Selected by an international panel of art historians, museum curators, botanists, florists, horticulturalists, and more, works by a diverse range of both lesser-known and iconic artists and image-makers are featured, including: Nobuyoshi Araki, Cecil Beaton, Georg Ehret, David Hockney, Horst P. Horst, Nick Knight, Yayoi Kusama, Leonardo da Vinci, Robert Mapplethorpe, Henri Matisse, Claude Monet, Cedric Morris, William Morris, Georgia O’Keeffe, Irving Penn, David Hockney, Pierre-Joseph Redouté, Rachel Ruysch, Constance Spry, and Flora Starkey.

Advisory panel: Lugene B. Bruno, Dr James Compton, Shane Connolly, Anne-Pierre d’Albis-Ganem, Celia Fisher, Susan M. Fraser, Victoria Gaiger, Elizabeth Hammer, Daisy Helman, Catherine Hess, Pascale Heurtel, Dr Lisa Hostetler, Lyndsey Ingram, Professor Dr Hans Walter Lack, Dr Fred G. Meijer, Colleen Morris, Polly Nicholson, Lynn Parker, Anna Pavord, Gill Saunders, Lindsey Taylor, Anatole Tchikine and Betsy Wieseman

Additional texts: Giovanni Aloi, Louise Bell, Lugene Bruno, Shane Connolly, Clare Coulson, Louisa Elderton, Celia Fisher, Diane Fortenberry, Victoria Gaiger, Daisy Helman, Pascale Heurtel, Lyndsey Ingram, Hans Walter Lack, Fred G. Meijer, Alison Morris, Colleen Morris, Polly Nicholson, Michele Robecchi, Rebecca Roke, Gill Saunders, James Smith, Lindsey Taylor, David Trigg and Martin Walters

Whether you are working on paper or on a computer, this invaluable reference work will lead you through the intricacies, problems and pleasures of the English language with wit, common sense and authority.

• Deals with the dangers of jargon, cliché and superfluous words
• Covers strategies for choosing the right word in any situation
• Lays out the ground rules of grammar and punctuation and shows how to avoid the pitfalls
• Discusses the influence of science and technology, and other cultures
• Gives suggestions for drafting letters
• Provides a list of words to use with care

Sir Ernest Gowers (1880-1966) advised numerous commissions and committees on a wide variety of subjects from work conditions to the preservation of historic houses.

Sidney Greenbaum (1929-1996) was Quain Professor of English Language and Literature at the University of London, a Director of the Survey of English Usage and the author of many books on grammar and linguistics including A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language (1985).

Janet Whitcut has worked on a number of prestigious dictionaries, including the Longman Dictionary of the English Language (1984) and is now a freelance writer with a special interest in language and lexicography.