“An exhilarating romp through Orwell’s life and times and also through the life and times of roses.” ―Margaret Atwood “Nobody who reads it will ever think of Nineteen Eighty-Four in quite the same way.”―Vogue A lush exploration of roses, pleasure, and politics, and a fresh take on George Orwell as an avid gardener whose political writing was grounded in his passion for the natural world“In the year 1936 a writer planted roses.” So begins Rebecca Solnit’s new book, a reflection on George Orwell’s passionate gardening and the way that his involvement with plants, particularly flowers, and the natural world illuminates his other commitments as a writer and antifascist, and the intertwined politics of nature and power. Sparked by her unexpected encounter with the surviving roses he planted in 1936, Solnit’s account of this understudied aspect of Orwell’s life explores his writing and his actions―from going deep into the coal mines of England, fighting in the Spanish Civil War, critiquing
