The fictionalised story of John Tradescant the Younger's life, travelling to Virginia, falling in love with a Native Indian girl, and of his marriage of convenience to Hester, back in Civil War England, bringing up his two children by his first wife, and caring for their two houses and the collection of curiosities, Tradescant's Ark.

I don't remember reading any acknowledgements or references to research which Philippa Gregory used to write this book, but as she is respected enough as a historian to feature occasionally on ITV's archeological programme 'Time Team', I can only assume she did her research on this book. The English Civil War is a period of history I know little about, so it was interesting to read about the various battles and factions. The way in which the information was presented, bound together with the story of the Tradescant family, made it interesting and more personal. Despite the fact that Philippa Gregory was restricted by the facts of the Tradescant family's fortunes, she managed to bring the period to life and made me want to follow the fortunes of John Tradescant, his second wife Hester, his children Frances and Johnnie. When he went to Virginia, I enjoyed the the descriptions of Powhatan life and thinking, although I would have liked more detail about their way of life. As a gardener, I was interested by the details of plants which John brought home to England from his travels, and his theories about crop rotation; certainly in this part of the story, the author had researched the background. It is rather surprising to note that chestnuts were rarities introduced by John Tradescant's father, as they seem such a part of the English landscape today. I had also not made the link to Virginia creeper actually being brought over to England from Virginia.

All in all, I found this both an interesting view into life during this period of English history, and a fascinating family saga which is in fact true, although fictionalised. The duplicity at the end with Mr. Ashmole adds a poignant twist to the tale, and as the author points out, the Tradescants will never be forgotten as the plant Tradescantia is here to stay; in fact, in my own garden, the self-seeded plants which arrived from my next-door neighbour's front garden are a menace in the borders, as it is difficult to dig up and self-seeds readily!

I read this book while on holiday in the USA, and managed to finish it about 15 minutes before visiting the lovely Elizardbreath and her children at their home in Pendleton, Oregon. I'm so glad we got to meet in person, and my daughter was very taken with Elizardbreath's eldest daughter.

This book is particularly appropriate, as it is partly set in the USA (Elizardbreath's home country), partly in the UK (my home country), and I discovered that there was also mention of Holland (my adopted country), as the as-yet-uncrowned Charles II was exiled there during Cromwell's leadership of the country. As we travel around the USA, I realise that there are many garden plants which we consider near native which were in fact collected from the USA as wild plants, centuries ago. We have seen sunflowers growing in the wild at the sides of the road here, and moving into Eastern Oregon we have seen perennial sweet peas (very exotic) growing in the grass verges next to the Columbia Gorge, as well as piggy-back plants in the forest, which we only grow as house plants in Europe.

Thank you, Elizardbreath, for welcoming us to your home, and I hope you enjoy the book.

**********************************************************************

This book has been released as part of the following BookCrossing challenges:
- The Ultimate Challenge - read and release books, with extra points for a monthly theme
- Reduce Mount TBR (To Be Read) - read and release books on the TBR list since before the end of 2011. My reading goal is 75 books.
- Pages Read Challenge - read a self-set target number of pages in 2012. My goal is 26,000.

It was so great to meet you yesterday, Bookguide! This is the perfect book to pass on to me since it intertwines both our "worlds"! I'm looking forward to reading it and then, possibly, passing it on to my mom, who is in the middle of her first Philippa Gregory novel this week!

Thanks for the opportunity to read this! Passing it along to the next reader...

To the finder of this book:

This book is gift, no strings attached, from me to you. You may keep it forever, pass it along to a friend, or release it into the wild to be found by someone else.

If you are new to BookCrossing, welcome! Enjoy the site, the book, and the BookCrossing community. I hope you'll join us...it's free! If you do, please consider using me, elizardbreath, as your referring member. You can even remain anonymous if you wish!

I hope you'll make a brief journal entry so all the previous and future readers can track this book's journey.

Thanks, and Happy BookCrossing! :)