In this remarkable journal of visits to Eden, Mabey transports his reader from Cornwall to the Mediterranean to the Tropics, from Old World to New, from present to personal memory, to new perspectives on our collective artistic and emotional past. Sensuous and evocative, exquisitely written, his new book challenges the reader to look differently at the world, and our place in the landscape. At the same time, Mabey is controversial in his views about what we mean by buzz words like 'renewable', or 'sustainable', and he is highly provocative in his final response to the Eden Project itself.

Richard Mabey was born and brought up in the Chilterns. He lived there until the late 1990s when he moved to Norfolk where he now lives with his partner, Polly. He is the author of 13 previous books (see previous books), of which perhaps the best known are the enduring classics, 'Food for Free' and 'Flora Britannica' . He writes regularly for the Times, the Guardian and BBC Wildlife. He is also a regular broadcaster on Radio 4.

Triggered by visits to the Eden Project, Britain's foremost countryside writer is on top form as he discusses specific plants, plant hunters, what we mean by Paradise, and other botanical and ecological ideas.