The Lotus quest. In search of the sacred flower. 2009. col. pls. XIII, 338 p. gr8vo. Paper bd.

The Lotus is the worlds most iconic flower. Galvanised by receiving seeds from a 3000 year old lotus, which flowered without difficulty in an English summer, the author set out to track the path of this sublime plant to its home in the Lotus-Lands of Japan. His quest involved many adventures and revealed extraordinary new material. The book touches on the lotus in ancient Egypt and India and on the plant medicinal uses, as well asthe inspiration it has provided to Western artists. Most of all, it unveils a stunning vision of Japans feudal era, as the author visits shrines, ruins, gardens and wild landscapes, and meets priests and archaeologists, philosophers and anthropologists, gardeners and botanists, poets and artists, and even dines on the lotus in a Tokyo café. By the end the reader understandswhy this flower has been so intimately involved with human history at so many levels, over so vast an expanse of time.