Botanical Curses and Poisons

Details:

• author: Fez Inkwright
  
• full title: Botanical Curses and Poisons: The Shadow-Lives of Plants
  
• narrator: Leslie Howard
• genre: nonfiction, history, science
  
• topics: #plants #poisons #folklore #mythology #occult
  
• publisher: Tantor Audio
  
• publish date: 07.12.2021
  
• timing: 7:15:00
  
  

My Rating of the Audiobook:

• content: 💙💙💙💙.5
• narration: 💙💙💙💙💙

 

Goodreads

Excerpt from the Book:

Wolfbane is infamous for its lethal nature. It is interchangeably known as monkhood, as the shape of the flowers somewhat resemble the cowls of English monks; however, wolfsbane is likely to be the older name for the plant as it can be found occurring much earlier in the Anglo-Saxon form wulf-bana. More poetic sources call it the Queen of Poison, such a favourite was it in acts of homicide. The scientific name comes from the hills of Aconitus, the place where Romans claimed Hercules dragged Cerberus from the Underworld during their battle. Where three-headed guard dog’s saliva fell to the ground, wolfsbane sprung forth from the earth.

My Thoughts:

Botanical Curses and Poisons is a very interesting audiobook that provides us with a lot of ancient folk stories about plants. Besides that, we learn about name origins and their poisonous effects or connections with death. In this book, you will find a lot of common and uncommon plants. Some of them were frequently used by healers and witches. A few of those plants are harmless, but they were, at least at one point, connected to stories of death.

The audiobook also contains a lot of poems and quotes from famous works. The cover is amazing. I saw some sample pages from the physical book. It contains a lot of beautiful illustrations. So this would be a good choice too. But one great advantage of an audiobook is definitely its narrator - Leslie Howard. I love her voice, that is so very pleasing and soothing. Listening to anything she reads is like a song for the ears.

I would recommend this book or audiobook to all interested in the folklore and science facts about plants.

About the Author:

Fez Inkwright is a Bristol-based author and illustrator whose main passions lie in conservation, folklore, and tattoo design, with heavy occult and ethnobotanical themes. She focuses on the significance of parts of our ecosystems that are often overlooked, such as common weeds and hedgerow plants, and aim to raise awareness of their vital importance to the health of our planet.

Fez has authored and illustrated a number of books and cartomancy decks, primarily exploring the importance of plants and insects to the development of human culture and religion.