Novel Presents: Hollington's Florilegium by Clark Lawrence

You can judge this book by its cover. It was painted to reveal the book's essence. Florilegium is made up of two Latin words, flower (flos) and the verb "to gather" (legere), and this book is true to the word's literal meaning. It is Hollington's unique bouquet.

Florilegia, if we look back to the earliest medieval collections, are not new as an idea, nor are they rare, but this one is different. It is personal in a way that most florilegia are not; instead of being a selection of several authors' writings, it is written by one. Instead of featuring a vast array of painted flowers from a specific area or garden, it is more humble, even endearing in nature, an ABC book with a reassuringly predictable format of 26 letters. A primer is usually for children, an introduction to the alphabet and the first words of a language. To…