Wild Flowers in Britain (from the library of Frances Partridge)
GRIGSON, Geoffrey. Wild Flowers in Britain. London: 1944
First edition. Good.
From the library of Frances Partridge with her signature and notes on the text. 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 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.