There are plenty of books on how to look after houseplants but Catherine Horwood is the first to show us how, when and why these plants came to be found in our homes. We learn how potted plants are as subject to fashion as pieces of furniture. For the Victorians it was the aspidistra in the front parlour; for us it is the orchid in the designer loft. We find that Wedgwood created a market for special bulb pots and that some of Conran's early designs were for houseplant containers. Then there is the story of mignonette: a modest plant once prized in every home for its intoxicating scent – a scent now lost to us for ever. Catherine Horwood's novel combination of social history, plant history and the history of interior design is intriguing. Her illustrations come from a variety of unusual sources since potted plants can be found in many unexpected corners.

Potted History: The Story of Plants in the Home

Horwood, Catherine

Arts & Photography

Frances Lincoln

The British have always been concerned about accent, appearance and class, but at no time during the twentieth century was the cliche 'keeping up appearances' more to the point than during the 1920s and 1930s. 'It is easier to recruit for monasteries and convents than to induce ...a British officer to walk through Bond Street in a golfing cap on an afternoon in May' commented George Bernard Shaw in 1903. This fascinating book looks at how the middle classes chose to dress themselves during the period, and shows how those choices were coloured just as much by the advent of mass production, methods of shopping, economic stringency, snobbery, and the influence of America, as by personal aesthetics. Drawing on a range of primary sources, including Mass Observation records, this book vividly records the experiences of dress shopping during the interwar years, and reveals the importance of the dress codes to which both men and women adhered, and the social conventions which they demonstrated. This fascinating, well written and illustrated book explores the social mores which lie behind one of urban man's most popular - and written about - activities, and reveals not only how we dressed, but why.

Keeping Up Appearances: Fashion And Class Between The Wars

Graphic Design

The History Press / Sutton Publishing

Have you ever glanced at an old photograph and wondered just why you chose to look like that? Or wondered just what possessed a designer when he imagined a particular item of clothing could flatter anybody? Well, we all make mistakes, and here they all are. From furry boots and platform soles to hot pants, kipper ties, knitted tank tops and paper knickers; from Afghan coats, shell suits and tartan trews to boob tubes, furry boots, mink bikinis and Val Doonican jumpers, prepare to re-live the fashion victim's tangerine dreams and visible nightmares. Richly illustrated with ghastly close-ups and contemporary photographs, this book also includes lists of the Kings and Queens of Worst Fashions, The Absolutely Worst Men's and Women's Wear; 'Yesterday's Labels; The Least Successful Fashion Campaigns; the worst selling fashion items and the most successful worst fashions.

Worst Fashions: What we shouldn't have worn...but did

Sutton Pub Ltd

The British have always been concerned about accent, appearance and class, but at no time during the twentieth century was 'keeping up appearances' more important than during the 1920s and 1930s. From the impecunious youth anxious to create a favourable impression at the local tennis club dance to female office workers advised by the Daily Mail that women in business kept 'their position partly, if not chiefly, by appearance', we peer into the intimate lives and anxieties of the middle classes as they dressed to impress. Seemingly insignificant items such as ties, braces, gloves and hats, could convey a lack of breeding if worn incorrectly. This engagingly written and illustrated book explores the social mores behind one of society's most popular activities, and reveals not only how we dressed by why.

Keeping Up Appearances: Fashion and Class Between the Wars

The History Press

Gardening Women

Crafts, Hobbies & Home

Gardening & Landscape Design

Windsor

From the golden age in English history to today’s gardeners and designers, this volume recognizes women’s contributions to gardening in Britain and around the world spanning more than four centuries. Despite growing vegetables for their kitchens, tending herbs for their medicine cupboards, and teaching other women about the craft before agricultural schools officially existed, women have been mere footnotes in the horticultural annals for specimens collected abroad. These pioneers’ influence on the style of gardens in the present day is illustrated here in a style both accessible and scholarly. Presenting a rare bouquet, this collection shares the stories of more than 200 women who have been involved with garden design, plant collecting, flower arranging, botanical art, garden writing, and education.

Women and Their Gardens: A History from the Elizabethan Era to Today

History

World

Ball Publishing

Could a book by any other name smell as sweet? Absolutely not. The rose is the world’s favorite flower—and always has been. It is our greatest floral symbol of love and romance, and it is a bloom that touches our hearts as the flower most often chosen to celebrate significant milestones—weddings, anniversaries, births, and indeed, deaths. In this book, Catherine Horwood traces the botanical, religious, literary, and artistic journeys of the rose across the centuries, from battles to bridal bouquets. From Cleopatra’s rose petal–filled bed to Nijinsky’s Spectre de la Rose, from the highly prized Attar of Rose oil so beloved by the ancient Persians to the rosy scents of top perfume labels today, from Shakespearean myths about the War of the Roses to the significance of roses in Queen Elizabeth I’s embroidered dresses, and even to blockade-running during the Napoleonic Wars to satisfy Empress Josephine’s passion for collecting her favorite flower, Rose blossoms with the many stories of our ardor for this botanical family. Featuring a bower of illustrations and drawing on an array of sources as rich and many-hued as roses themselves, Horwood’s tale opens our eyes and noses to the world’s major rose-growing nations. With operatic tales of medieval bestsellers, nurserymen’s rivalries, and changing tastes in our personal flower beds, Rose is certain to woo both gardeners and non-gardeners alike.

Rose (Botanical)

Reaktion Books

Beth Chatto was the inspiration behind the "right plant, right place" ethos that lies at the heart of modern gardening. She also wrote some of the best-loved gardening books of the 20th century, among them The Dry Garden, The Damp Garden, and Beth Chatto’s Gravel Garden. Some years before her death in May 2018, aged 94, Beth authorized Catherine Horwood to write her biography, with exclusive access to her archive. It also includes extracts from Beth’s notebooks and diaries, never previously published, bringing Beth’s own distinctive and much-loved voice into the book. Most of the photographs from Beth’s personal archives, have also never been seen in print before. For Beth’s legions of fans, here is the personal story behind her beliefs and the struggles and determination that brought her success.

Beth Chatto: A Life with Plants

Biographies & Memoirs

Professionals & Academics

Pimpernel Press

There is no shortage of books on how to look after houseplants but no one has shown us how and when and why these plants came to be in our homes. Catherine Horwood's combination of social history, plant history and the history of interior design explains why, as Flanders and Swann sung in the 1950s, 'the garden's full of furniture / and the house is full of plants.' In this fascinating book we learned how potted plants are as much subject to fashion as pieces of furniture. For the Victorians, it was the aspidistra in the front parlour, the Edwardians loved a palm, and, for today's millennials, no home is complete without the ubiquitous fiddle-leaf fig. This book show that there is little new when it comes to plants in the home. In the mid-18th century, Wedgwood created a market for special bulb pots and in the 1950s, some of Terence Conran's earliest designs were for houseplant containers. Across the ages, the choice of potted plants has been influenced by the layout of houses, the levels of dirt and pollution and the equipment to hand. Now, with so much choice, we seem happy to treat houseplants as disposables. This book gives a better understanding of the miracles that were once achieved with indoor plant displays, inspired by Sir Hugh Platt's 1608 vision of a garden 'within doores'. This new edition has been revised with new material added to bring the history of the houseplant and its massive explosion in popularity right up to date.

Potted History: How Houseplants Took Over Our Homes

Historical Study & Educational Resources

The authorized biography of world-renowned plantswoman Beth Chatto (1923-2018) Beth Chatto was the inspiration behind the "right plant, right place" ethos that lies at the heart of modern gardening. She also wrote some of the best-loved gardening books of the 20th century, among them The Dry Garden, The Damp Garden, and Beth Chatto's Gravel Garden. Some years before her death in May 2018, aged 94, Beth authorized Catherine Horwood to write her biography, with exclusive access to her archive. It also includes extracts from Beth's notebooks and diaries, never previously published, bringing Beth's own distinctive and much-loved voice into the book. Most of the photographs from Beth's personal archives, have also never been seen in print before. For Beth's legions of fans, here is the personal story behind her beliefs and the struggles and determination that brought her success.

Community & Culture

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Horwood, Catherine. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Horwood, Catherine

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Horwood, Catherine. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Potted History: The Story of Plants in the Home

Keeping Up Appearances: Fashion And Class Between The Wars

Worst Fashions: What we shouldn't have worn...but did

Keeping Up Appearances: Fashion and Class Between the Wars

Gardening Women

Women and Their Gardens: A History from the Elizabethan Era to Today

Rose (Botanical)

Beth Chatto: A Life with Plants

Potted History: How Houseplants Took Over Our Homes

Beth Chatto: A Life with Plants