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 keep with that simple spirit, here the painter and writer decided to entertain adults by sharing with them their personal, often unpredictable, plant choice for each letter. This book introduces readers to species they might already know, but encourages them to slow down and look more closely. It also kindly reminds them of names they may have forgotten.

Hollington's Florilegium has very little in common with the pharmacopoeia and herbals of yesteryear and even less with botanical illustrations of the 18th and 19th century. Plants are not dissected; they live amongst an amalgam of life forms; plant, animal, and human. Beauty is sometimes complicated, rather than the purity of single plants a la Pierre-Joseph Redouté, it can be a jungle. Here we are immersed in the natural world as seen through Hollington's eyes and described through Lawrence's words. "Poetry over precision" is one of Lawrence's favorite mottoes, and the poetry, both visual and verbal, is in abundance.