SOME FLOWERS

Vita Sackville-West

Plates by Graham Rust

Pavilion Books 1993

In Some Flowers Vita Sackville-West took the novel of choosing 25 of her favourite flowers and describing their appearance, origins and characteristics- and the best ways to grow them-in a series of brilliantly expressive pen portraits which retain their freshness over fifty years later.

The flowers she selects are not those which only have an affect en masse but  those which are lovely in shape, colouring, marking or texture-flowers which painters have delighted, or should delight to paint-and shows a similar sensitively in the words she chooses to depict them. Whether describing a native British species such as the meadow Fritillary, in which she finds an almost sinister delicacy, or an import such as the half-hardy annual salpiglosis, with its amazing range of richness of colour, she conveys its painterly qualities with consummate skill.

Whereas in the original edition of Some Flowers, first published in 1937, black-and-white photographs did less than justice to both Flowers and text, here, fittingly, the exquisite watercolours of Graham Rust provide a perfect marriage of words and images, clearly demonstrating at last the accuracy and ingenuity of Vita Sackville-west’s descriptions. This glorious second flowering of her personal, erudite and poetical book will not only delight her many admirers but also guarantee her reputation with a new generation of gardening enthusiasts.

Both the book and the dust jacket are in very good condition