Who knew? George Orwell, a freedom fighter in the Spanish Civil War, an acerbic critic of both capitalism and communism, the scold of public school education in England of the 1930’s and 40’s, and the unmatched authority on writing style, grew roses.

Author Rebecca Solnit, upon discovering Orwell’s unexpected hobby, undertook this examination of his passionate gardening and the way that his involvement with plants, particularly flowers, illuminates his other commitments as a writer and antifascist, and on the intertwined politics of nature and power.

The book was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction and for the PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for Biography.