---
product_id: 22100221
title: "The Cabaret of Plants: Forty Thousand Years of Plant Life and the Human Imagination"
brand: "richard mabey"
price: "R877"
currency: ZAR
in_stock: true
reviews_count: 8
category: "Books"
url: https://www.desertcart.co.za/products/22100221-the-cabaret-of-plants-forty-thousand-years-of-plant-life
store_origin: ZA
region: South Africa
---

# The Cabaret of Plants: Forty Thousand Years of Plant Life and the Human Imagination

**Brand:** richard mabey
**Price:** R877
**Availability:** ✅ In Stock

## Quick Answers

- **What is this?** The Cabaret of Plants: Forty Thousand Years of Plant Life and the Human Imagination by richard mabey
- **How much does it cost?** R877 with free shipping
- **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship
- **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.co.za](https://www.desertcart.co.za/products/22100221-the-cabaret-of-plants-forty-thousand-years-of-plant-life)

## Best For

- richard mabey enthusiasts

## Why This Product

- Trusted richard mabey brand quality
- Free international shipping included
- Worldwide delivery with tracking
- 15-day hassle-free returns

## Description

Review
        	  
        	  
        		  
        		  
	        		
						
			        		&#x201C;Mabey&#x2019;s book lets us see plants as subjects rather than objects, arrayed in all their colors, performing miraculous tricks, dances and acrobatics. . . . [His] lyrical prose enlivens the history of botanical understanding . . . [and] many readers will reel out of Mr. Mabey&#x2019;s stimulating cabaret with their view of the plant world&#x2015;the living world we all share&#x2015;enriched beyond measure.&#x201D; - Jenny Uglow, Wall Street Journal&#x201C;A powerful shock to those of us who thought that plants can&#x2019;t think. . . . Interesting and entertaining.&#x201D; - Amy Stewart, Washington Post&#x201C;A gorgeous and engaging book. . . . There are so many delights to be found in Cabaret&#x2015;from the hunt for the elusive ian moonflower, to the wonder of self-rejuvenating yews that defy efforts to determine their age, to the sprouting of an extinct Judean palm from a 2,000-year-old excavated seed&#x2015;and Mabey keeps us enthralled from first to last.&#x201D; - Jennifer Bort Yacovissi, Washington Independent Review of Books&#x201C;A delightfully accessible work of scholarship&#x2026;. Mabey&#x2019;s sensitive approach not only succeeds in giving these incredibly vital beings their just place in the story of life. It reminds us that, as we stare in the maw of large-scale environmental change, we can learn the right lessons from our relationship with plants and draw inspiration from their incredible resilience.&#x201D; - Booklist, Starred review&#x201C;The greatest writer on nature alive&#x2026;. [Mabey] fuses botany, art and literature into a prose which is interrogative, pungent, and urgently alive.&#x201D; - Evening Standard (UK)&#x201C;Wonderfully thought-provoking&#x2026;. Of all his 30-plus books, this is surely among his finest, an eclectic world-roaming collection of stories &#x2026;lacing color, intimacy and emotional texture around the scaffold of hard facts.&#x201D; - Spectator (UK)&#x201C;This is the nature-writing equivalent of fine dining&#x2015;rich, full of different tastes, lasting and satisfying. A treat not to miss&#x2026;. Go, buy it, and feast. Botany rocks!&#x201D; - Dominic Couzens, BBC (UK)&#x201C;Written with a typically Mabeyish mixture of wit, knowledge and intellectual power, The Cabaret of Plants&#xA0;. . . left me challenged and delighted&#x2015;and seeing the world a little differently.&#x201D; - Robert Macfarlane
						    	
					    	
						
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        	  	  About the Author
        	  
        	  
        		  
        		  
	        		
						
			        		Richard Mabey is the author of Food for Free, Flora Britannica, and Weeds: In Defense of Nature&#x2019;s Most Unloved Plants, among other books. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, he has narrated popular BBC television and radio series and written for the Guardian and Granta. He lives in Norfolk, England.
						    	
					    	
						
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## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    A perfectly delightful book- full of interesting facts written in a way for all readers
  

*by N***Y on March 15, 2017*









  
  
    What a delightful book!  I have been fascinated by all the great facts and history made so interesting by Richard Mabey.  If you love nature, are interested in plants throughout history, and just enjoy a good read by a talented author, this is your book.There was one mistake that I found in the chapter on Cycads.  Oliver Sacks DID write about cycads, but  Mr. Mabey was incorrect in stating that the plant ingestion was associated with color blindness.  Eating parts of the Cycad is associated with a neurological disease.I looked to forward to a great read every evening and hope to read more by the author.  I don't understand the negative reviews at all!  But I've got a lot of knowledge about plants, trees, and gardening, and I love reading about them.
  


### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    Good Book
  

*by S***R on December 3, 2019*









  
  
    In all senses of the word, Richard Mabey is a great writer. Crawling through thousands of years of plant and human history, Mabey writes an entertaining book about plants and humans.
  


### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    Five Stars
  

*by C***N on November 1, 2017*









  
  
    An absolutely great book about the interrelationship of plants and people
  


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*Product available on Desertcart South Africa*
*Store origin: ZA*
*Last updated: 2026-03-07*