Holcombe Brook and Summerseat WI

Our latest book for discussion was The Botanist's Daughter by Katie Nunn "This story takes place over two time periods, late Victorian and modern day. It encompasses three countries, Britain, Chile and Australia, two heroines, a villain and lots of plants. If that’s not got your head spinning, this pleasant, undemanding, page - turning epic will fill a few lockdown hours very adequately. A hidden box, containing a diary and an album, starts the action and leads us into family secrets, journeys into the unknown and parallel lives. One leading lady begins life anew; the other leaves it. The world of seed and plant collectors, and the ruthless competition to discover new spec imens, takes us to Sydney’s Botanical Garden, Kew Gardens, Cornwall and the foothills of the Andes. We found the story well told and researched, but too ‘Mills and Boon’. Characters were predictable and cliched, some dropped with little ceremony, leaving a hole in the plot. Others circled th