Shute was a brilliant storyteller and terrific example for any writer

Most of my adult life, perhaps all the worthwhile part of it, has been spent messing about with airplanes

Any book by Nevil Shute is a delight

The perfect primer on the past and future of DNA

Amazing and amusing . . . unputdownable

A story which will inspire many

Inspirational reading

A wondrous telling of the history of the very English love affair with gardens and growing things

The Brother Gardeners is a delightful book. It brings the story of 18th-century gardening to life in a remarkably vivid way, and sheds new light on the personality clashes and prejudices which lay at the root of the Georgians' passion for plants

The Brother Gardeners were a group of men involved in the 18th-century quest for new plants, at a fascinating period in garden history. Andrea Wulf brings their personalities vividly to life in her thoroughly researched and lively account.

A totally engrossing read

Immaculately written and researched, this book brings to life the dramas and dangers of eighteenth-century plant collecting

[An] engrossing history of botanical obsession in England in the 18th century ... The author has a good eye for interesting detail and a fine sense of literary economy

A 'biography' of the quintessential English garden, taking in Captain Cook, Carl Linnaeus, and the simultaneous rise of the British Empire and flower arranging - a delightful look at horticultural history

As Wulf triumphantly shows, plants and gardens reveal a wider view of the forces that shape society ... An antidote to dry garden history; rarely has the story of English plants been told with such vigour, and such fun

The best book this year is The Brother Gardeners: Botany, Empire and the Birth of an Obsession

Andrea Wulf has written a wonderful book, using a clutch of fascinating men to remind us the British Empire was once as much about white pine and Camellia japonica as it was about guns and steel ... enthralling story ... brilliantly readable book