In short, if you found this review to be over-long and dragged-out, then you will find The Fair Botanists to be just as bad. Despite the ceaseless descriptions of everything and everyone and the abundant amount of research that’s gone into it, The Fair Botanists is ultimately a dull, uninteresting read with neither substance, charm, nor intrigue. Reading this book feels like trying to eat tissue paper – bland, pointless, and ultimately forgettable. You have an excellent question, and allow me to answer it for you: No. No, they are not, not in any capacity. Even beyond the style struggles, the prose problems, and the tense troubles, the story itself is utterly, entirely unforgettable, with as much hold on the reader as a gentle breeze. Less, even. At least a breeze will still stir your hair.

I came across this in my local library. I was intrigued that the subject matter, although historical fiction, was set in 1822 and encompassed botany, mystery, women [as central characters] and real characters from history, especially those local to the Edinburgh area. Your work always shines a light on women’s stories that history has overlooked. How have these stories shaped your thinking about our shared history? You love the research process for your novels. Was there anything you learned during your research for The Fair Botanists that surprised you?

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Dazzling, original, full of wonderful characters and so interesting! Anyone who's ever looked at a flower will love it as much as I do. And of course, I’m always interested in the women, so I was interested in looking at the way women interacted with the Garden as an institution, which was at the time part of the University of Edinburgh’s medical school. It’s too early for women to train as doctors but that doesn’t mean it’s a solely male preserve…. The pace of this book is excellent and held well throughout the book – even with the more exciting goings on that occur later on. It’s doesn’t trample on ahead at a rate of knots so you get lost in the plot, but equally it isn’t slow and difficult to get through. It didn’t take very long for the paths of the characters to cross – which is something I like in a book where there are many characters and stories. I always find them much richer when they are integrated and play out together, rather than being read separately and eventually coming together towards the end. In Great King Street Mr Graham’s man enters the bedroom and wakes the master. The Graham’s keep separate rooms, with the lady housed in larger accommodation to the rear where a mahogany four-poster is upholstered in sky-blue, fringed damask. Mr Graham sleeps in his dressing room on a single bed with a window to the street. He visits Mrs Graham once a month for they have been married for many years and he does not like to impose. This arrangement is of his choosing and is entirely acceptable to him. Margaret was told to leave her rooms and she refused to go. She was quite famous for being strong-minded. So, there is a little bit of Margaret in Belle, then some of the very upmarket courtesans that you read about during the Georgian era, such as Harriette Wilson in London."

As rare and lush as the Agave flower itself, The Fair Botanists is a richly realised, transportive delight’ Rachel Rhys READ MORE: Sara Sheridan on battling deafness, reclaiming Scottish cultural identity and perfecting cosy crime noirRecords the default button state of the corresponding category & the status of CCPA. It works only in coordination with the primary cookie.