It’s always difficult to judge how deep a book’s roots go, so if there are any colleagues who recognise their influence in these pages and are not acknowledged below, let me apologise and thank them now. To those involved during the three years I was working directly on Cabaret, for reading and commenting on sections, for advice and support, for pointing out sources, stories, books, for company on walks and more ambitious explorations and for simple support – warm thanks to Bill Adams, Ian Collins, Jill Cook at the British Museum, Jon Cook, Francesca Greenoak, Jay Griffiths, Robin and Rachel Hamilton, Caspar Henderson, Richard Holmes, Tony Hopkins, the staff of the Hortus Botanicus in Amsterdam, Kathleen Jamie, the Linnaean Society of London, Robert Macfarlane, Lucy Newlyn, Peter Newmark, Norwich Cathedral Library, the staff of the Orto Botanico in Padua, Philip Oswald, Martin Sanford of the Suffolk Biological Records Centre, Martha, Reuben and Kit Shawyer, the late Richard Simon, and Christopher Woodward of the Museum of Garden History. And a special debt of gratitude to my dear friends and botanical mentors, Bob Gibbons and Libby Ingalls, for their wisdom and company on many botanising trips at home and abroad, and for sharing their experiences of places I have never visited.
Of the many sacks of books one reads in the course of research, I will single out one that has been especially inspirational: Molly Mahood’s The Poet as Botanist. The Cabaret could be seen as a response, maybe subtitled The Botanist as Poet, or even The Plant as Poet.
I am deeply grateful to Dame Fiona Reynolds, Master of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and the college fellows, for the award of a Derek Brewer Visiting Fellowship in 2014, which gave me the freedom of weeks of uninterrupted reading, and the chance to use the Cambridge University Botanic Gardens as my home patch. A particular bow is due to Emmanuel’s Senior Arboreal Fellow, the Great Plane under whose prehensile boughs I spent many meditative and productive hours. In the Cambridge Botanic Gardens special thanks to the glasshouse curator, Alex Summers and his staff, who gave freely of their time and knowledge. The cooperation of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew was also invaluable, and I thank the Director, Richard Deverell, for facilitating this, and Richard Barley, Director Horticulture, and the irrepressibly friendly and enthusiastic staff of the herbarium, archives In the engine room, great thanks to Andrew Franklin, my publisher at Profile, for commissioning the book and for his unwavering support even at times when the project must have seemed as unruly as a bramble patch. To Penny Daniel, my editor, for her patience and understanding during the book’s progress, and my all too frequent lapses of faith in it, and for her diligent and sensitive editing of the final text. To Trevor Horwood for, as usual, forensically precise copy-editing and, thank goodness, for challenging me when I went too far out on a limb. To Cecilia Mackay for her brilliant work in finding and helping choose the images. To Douglas Matthews for his scholarly but accessible index. On the home front, my partner Polly was a sharp-eyed and enthusiastic companion on field trips, and warm support during the inevitable emotional ups and downs of writing a long book. She knows the score by now, but I’m well aware that doesn’t make it any easier for her.
Finally more thanks than I can properly express to my agent Vivien Green. This book evolved from an original idea by her, and during its progress she acted as critic, therapist, arbitrator, applauder and purveyor of tough love with all the affection and wisdom she has shown over three decades. This book is dedicated to her.