This survey of garden poisons is probably more of a book to flick through than the sort to read from end to end, especially on screen, which may be why the Netgalley ARC took me quite so long. Granted, it does open with some slightly more narrative chapters - on poison and witchcraft, history's most notorious poisoners, and the pioneers who wrote the early textbooks and herbals. These offer a passable enough survey of the field, but some will be fairly skimmable for anyone who knows this stuff. Still, I suppose you couldn't really do without them (and if you've been on a <i>Hamilton</i> kick recently, the bit on how primitive medicine probably hastened and certainly didn't slow Washington's end has a certain extra resonance). Michael Brown is a veteran gardener, the book being adapted from his talks, and while I'm sure the style is perfectly engaging in person, aided by props and demonstrations, on the page it can read a bit tum-te-tum-te-tum. Not that he doesn't have the information, but again, the organisation jumps about without an obvious logic, so we go from ergotism to Hippocrates within a couple of pages, via a rather forced 'Don't do drugs, mmmkay' warning. Anyway, that's about the first quarter of the book, after which we're into an alphabetical plant-by-plant survey, complete with colour illustrations. I am very far from being an expert botanist, so I can't comment on the accuracy, but I may potentially remember a few more plants after this? I was already fairly clear on not eating them, mind. Although matters get horribly confused by including eg basil, which yes, is associated with a notable literary murder, but surely that's pushing it? Granted, there's also a suggestion that taken in excess it might have certain narcotic side-effects, but seriously, given the amount of pesto I can sometimes get through on hangover pasta, I have my doubts. And in general, the accounts of notorious murders associated with given poisons feel - when taken en masse - a little padded, a little lacking in any particular character or perspective. It's not a bad book, by any means; I think I just wanted something different from it, a dark cousin to the farmer-turned-writer mode in which people like John Lewis-Stempel excel. So chalk it up to an infelicitous meeting of text, format and reader.

Michael Brown's Death in the Garden focuses on poisonous plants. The book first focuses on the broad history of poisonous plants. The second part is a look at individual plants. A description of each plant is included as well as why it is poisonous. Many instances of plant use throughout history are also included. I was not thrilled with the focus on Greek mythology, but it did not take away from the book. I simply have little interest in mythology. If you have an interest in gardening, this is a wonderful book to read.

It is always amazing to me that so many of the plants in our gardens have many beneficial properties in addition to being poisonous! This book gives so much background information and folklore, it should be part of every gardener's bookshelf. Particularly fascinating (to me) is the way that so many plants can deter invading insects in our gardens without us having to resort to chemical products. These plants are using chemical warfare of their own production!

This was a fun and informative read. I'm not sure I'd want this on my shelf if I was a murder suspect, but as a history buff and plant enthusiastic, this was fun to follow the history of the many uses of plants. It follows medical uses, and accidental deaths attributed to poisonous plants, as well as famous murders, political coups and poison prevention throughout history. I learned about emperors who depended on plants to murder, French kings who were paranoid about poisoning, and some people that history remembers as terrible poisoners who may have been framed. reading this really transformed my perception of plants around me and the vast history that follows them. It's the difference from knowing that apple pips are poisonous and that this attribute may account for some alcoholic beverages causing problems for having the pips crushed with the apples. This is a fun read for any fan of history, or gardening.

This is really interesting book, as a child we were always told not to touch this plant or that, it is good to know that there was some basis to the instruction. There is a full description of the plant including colour picture, and this is extremely helpful, living in Australia some of the plants have different common names.
There are quite a lot of historical details in amongst the plant information which I found quite interesting. The beginning of the book proved a little slower and harder to get into being pure facts.
I did enjoy the book, and now I did not think it was going to be a murder mystery, although I can see the link and why poisons where used in Golden Age writings.