To our final book.

This is such a lovely book I have actually bought a copy published in 1902 so that visitors can handle it. The Charlecote copy is earlier, dating from 1855. There is a second volume dating from 1857. Ann Pratt was born into a Grocer family in 1806. She was born lame so could not indulge in the usual children’s activities. She used to amuse herself by drawing. The family Doctor introduced her to elements of botany and persuaded her to illustrate flowers and plants. When she was 20 the family moved to Brixton and it was there she developed her career as a botanical illustrator. and became one of the best known Victorian illustrators.

She married John Peerless in 1826 and moved to Redhill in Surrey.

She wrote more than 20 books. She collaborated with William Dickes, an engraver skilled in the chromolithograph process. This requires the inking up of the engraving many times with different colours and overprinted onto the same sheet of paper to build up a colour image. Registration bars are used at the edge of the paper to ensure each printing is lined up correctly.
I love the way she writes. Her botany is accurate but also apparent is her love of the flowers she writes about , you can sense the enthusiasm and there is always a wealth of background or ancillary material. It is very readable, with nothing of the feel of a text book.. There are 96 illustrations in volume 1. Her books were extremely popular and are still being published today.

Her greatest work was the 6 volume series The Flowering Plants, Grasses, Sedges And Ferns Of Great Britain And Their Allies The Club Mosses, Pepperworts and Horsetails . (1855) Because she was lame her sister used to go out and bring back the plants for her to illustrate. All her books were printed under the auspices of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.