British Garden Flowers by George M. TAYLOR (from the library of Frances Partridge)
TAYLOR, George M. British Garden Flowers. London: Collins, 1946.
First edition. 8vo, original pink printed boards. 48 pp. 8 col plates, 26 b/w illustrations. Very good in dust jacket (spine rubbed and faded).
From the library of Frances Partridge with her signature in pencil to front endpaper. Frances Partridge [née Marshall] (1900–2004) was a diarist and memoirist, translator, botanist, and member of the Bloomsbury set. She is now considered one the most outstanding diarists of the 20th century, her memoirs providing unparalleled insights into the lives and loves of the Bloomsbury set.
Frances became an intimate player in one Bloomsbury’s most unconventional and fascinating romantic entanglements, a love quadrangle between herself, Ralph Partridge, his first wife, Dora Carrington, and Lytton Strachey (Frances loved Ralph, who loved Dora, who loved Lytton, who loved Ralph). The affair ended tragically for two of the protagonists with the death of Strachey from cancer, and the suicide of Carrington. Frances and Ralph Partridge subsequently married and lived together until Ralph’s death in 1960.
Frances had a life-long interest in botany, and in 1942 she and the artist Richard Chopping (the illustrator of the iconic dust jackets for Ian Fleming’s James Bond novels) were commissioned by Allen Lane to produce a multi-volume work on British Flora for Penguin Books. Chopping would draw every flower, while Frances would supply the accompanying text. But the project was regrettably cancelled in 1949 despite the work that had already been done.
It is very likely that this book had been studied and indexed by Frances for the British Flora project.