Jenny Uglow鈥檚 The Lunar Men, described by our reviewer as a sparkling group biography of the 18th-century amateur experimenters led by Erasmus Darwin in the Lunar Society, is out in paperback next month (Faber & Faber). Uglow is busy finishing off another project, and admits her reading is a) curtailed and b) erratic as 鈥渋t鈥檚 a case of turning off my brain鈥�.
She has 鈥渢ruthfully been reading鈥� Rose Tremain鈥檚 The Colour (Chatto and Windus, 2003), a 鈥渉aunting novel about the New Zealand gold rush鈥�, and a proof of Tibor Fischer鈥檚 鈥渂rilliantly uncomfortable鈥� novel due in September, Voyage to the End of the Room (Chatto and Windus).
And, she says, this is the oddity: Book of the Flower Show by Charles Curtis (Lane, 1910). It comes 鈥渃omplete with rules and regulations for everything from dahlias to apples (200 varieties) and grainily evocative Edwardian photographs鈥�.
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