My Gran : The Inspiration behind World of Flowers.

Next week I (finally) launch World of Flowers.
It feels like I’ve been waiting to share this book with the world my entire life!

The introduction of this book is especially important to me, because it tells the story of my Gran, Joan.
My creative genes came from her and she was always my biggest cheerleader.

As well as being creative, Gran was a Gardener and spent most of her life on the Isle of Arran, where my Grandfather was Head Gardener at Brodick Castle Gardens.

Adult Colouring Runs in the Family

She had a library of botanical references books, and when she came across a flower she had not found before, she would look it up in one of her botanical reference books and colour the black and white illustration printed there (often in Watercolour – bold move Gran!). She would try and exactly match the colouring to the specimen she had found.

I loved the way her books became a colourful take of the flowers of her life. We can’t all travel the world in search of rare orchids or exotic blooms, but we can all still let our imaginations run wild! World of Flowers contains hundreds of blossoms for you to bring to life. Some real, some imagined, and some an inky mix of the two (my ‘inky hybrids’!).

Gran passed away before any of this, before I even signed the contract for Secret Garden, but I’ve always thought she’s be rather tickled by what her granddaughter was up to!

#TrueFacts

One of my best memories of Gran was coming home from Art School to visit her. I popped in around noon and she was eating 2 KitKats. I asked if that was all she was having for lunch and she replied, ‘When you get to my age dear, you can do what you want’. Brilliant!

 

Before you go…

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And don’t forget, my new book, World of Flowers is NEXT WEEK! You can pre-order a copy today and have it arrive at your door on publication day!