Talking Plants

Allan Trott's (mistake-free?) knot garden at Ashburton in Aotearoa/New Zealand When I asked my wife what she thought of my most recent book,  The Sceptical Botanist , Lynda said she’d only flipped through but all good so far. Oh, and there were a couple of surnames misspelled. Everyone who gets feedback – public or private – is waiting for the sting in the tail. It doesn’t matter how gushing the praise, a single ‘but’, ‘if only’ or ‘it would have been better’ turns a barely contained smirk into a simpering smile. The reviews have been (so far) positive and generous, but I can’t find quickly enough the inevitable qualified word of praise or gentle rebuke.  A recent review was very kind but, sure enough, just near the end, the mention of ‘an unfortunate blemish’. Between squinted eyes, I read on. ‘Poor copy editing’ the reviewer said, ‘had left a large number of typographical errors’. I knew there were more than Lynda found – another reviewer had mentioned a couple more misspelt...