Shirley

The Life of a Botanical Adventurer

Shirley Sherwood

$66.99

Hardback

Not in-store but you can order this
How long will it take?

Availability Information

We source books from suppliers in Australia and overseas. For books we don't currently have in stock, the time it takes to get them from our suppliers can vary widely - from a few days to a few months - so we check each book with each supplier to determine the expected time it will take to be supplied to us.

We then advise you accordingly. If the time taken to get any book is too long for you, you can let us know and we will cancel or adjust your order, and refund as required.

To find out the anticipated arrival time for specific items prior to ordering, please contact us by phone or email:

Phone +61 2 9264 3111, or 1800 4 BOOKS (1800 4 26657) if outside Sydney:
option 1 Abbey's Bookshop (Crime, History, Science, Kids & more) • info@abbeys.com.au
option 2 Language Book Centre (ESL & Foreign Languages) • language@abbeys.com.au
option 3 Galaxy Bookshop (Sci-fi, Fantasy, Romance, Graphic Novels) • sf@galaxybooks.com.au

QTY:

English

Unicorn Publishing Group
17 January 2024

Botanical art; Autobiography: general; Autobiography: business & industry; Autobiography: arts & entertainment; Memoirs

Shirley, The Life of a Botanical Adventurer is the remarkable story of Dr Shirley Sherwood, scientist, author, travel writer, gardener as well as mother and grandmother. Following the tragic death of her brilliant scientist husband, Michael Cross, in a freak air crash in 1964, she was left as a 30-year-old widow with two young boys aged four and three. For the next twelve years she worked as a key member of the Nobel Prize-winning team which developed Tagamet, the first block-buster drug (sales of over $1 billion a year). After her marriage to Jim Sherwood in 1977, she left science to concentrate full-time on the huge task of restoring the fabled Orient-Express train, probably the most luxurious and exotic form of travel ever devised. The Venice Simplon-Orient-Express, running between London and Venice, was relaunched in 1982, ninety-nine years after its first journey. Sherwood's history of the project sold more than 400,000 copies. The Orient-Express train was just the beginning. The Sherwoods went on to create the five-star Orient-Express Hotels company (now Belmond), which owned some of the finest hotels in the world, including the Cipriani in Venice, the Mount Nelson in Cape Town and the Copacabana Palace in Rio. They pioneered new train routes across the Alps, started the Eastern & Oriental Express running between Singapore and Bangkok- crossing over the Bridge on the River Kwai- opened up tourism in Myanmar with the first cruise ship to operate on the Irrawaddy, and took over the railways of Peru, which run all the way to Machu Picchu and Lake Titicaca. Her most lasting achievement, the one of which she is proudest, is the Shirley Sherwood Collection of contemporary botanical art, which she started in 1990 and now includes over 1,000 paintings and drawings representing the work of more than 300 contemporary botanical artists from 36 countries. She has mounted exhibitions in many prestigious locations including the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, Kirstenbosch in Cape Town and the Real Jardin Botanico, Madrid. The Shirley Sherwood Gallery in Kew Gardens is the first museum to be dedicated to modern botanical art and her books, which often accompanied her exhibitions, have been largely responsible for re-establishing botanical art in its rightful place as an important art form. These are just some of the many achievements in a long and rich life, vividly described in this book.

By: Shirley Sherwood
Imprint: Unicorn Publishing Group
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 234mm, Width: 156mm,
ISBN: 9781911397892
ISBN 10: 1911397893
Pages: 256
Publication Date: 17 January 2024
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

The remarkable story of a brilliant research scientist and key member of a Nobel Prize-winning team who on to recreate, with her husband Jim, the fabled Orient-Express train, played a major role in the creation of a £3 billion five-star hotel company, and built the Shirley Sherwood Collection of Contemporary Botanical Art, the biggest and most important in the world.

Reviews for Shirley: The Life of a Botanical Adventurer

"""Shirley Sherwood put botanical art firmly back on the agenda with her incredible collection and her unremitting quest for only the very best."" – Sir Roy Strong CH FRSL “A remarkable and sophisticated life of science, travel and passion for the best of contemporary botanical art."" - Sir Peter Crane FRS ""Shirley is an inspiration in how to use one’s gifts wisely and live life well. Her memoir is a delight."" - Dame Mary Archer ""this is a compelling tale of a life rich in incident and bravery"" -- Steven Desmond"