|  Unputdownable, a word applied to novels, is not out of place here.
The book’s unlikely hero is John Parkinson, an unknown character,
in the sense that he is not listed in any of the standard biographical
dictionaries,
whose progress is followed from his origins in the Pennine wilds of Lancashire
to Elizabethan London.
In a Whittington-like transformation, Parkinson rises to become the celebrated
author of ‘Paradisum terrestris’, the most comprehensive “herbal” of
its time, and of ‘Theatrum botanicum’, a unique treatise
on the chemical properties of plants, and to become, under Charles I,
the country’s first official Royal herbalist.
Parkinson started as an apprentice to an apothecary when the Grocers’ Guild
held sway in this field and he was later instrumental, with the help
of colleagues, in founding the breakaway Society of Apothecaries. But,
in spite of his weird Lancashire accent and Catholic background, he succeeded,
we realise, because he shone at what he did best, expertly growing plants
in his two-acre plot next to Covent Garden Fields.
Fascinating as is Parkinson’s rise, it is the author’s always
lively and often dazzling accounts of London characters and life from
the late Elizabethan age through to the time of Charles I, that makes
the book so absorbing. John Gerard is there, cooking up his famous herbal,
a plagiarised and flawed translation of a Dutch precursor. James I, we
learn, considered himself an intellectual because he had written a book
on the most effective way of identifying witches.
Parkinson is called in by Charles I, along with (Dr) William Harvey,
who discovered the circulation of blood, to advise the king on the authenticity
of the famed 8ft royal unicorn horn (in 1600 it had been valued at £10,000).
John Tradescant pops in to see Parkinson in between his plant gathering
journeys to Europe and beyond, to show him his latest finds, revealing
that his efforts are impeded by his lack of a sense of smell.
If one is interested at all in historical characters and events, there
can be only one verdict on this book — buy it.
Ray Sturgess
(a pharmacist and freelance writer who writes mostly
on the history of medicine)
|
The
Pharmaceutical Journal