Pathless Forest: The Quest to Save the World’s Largest Flowers

Over the years, Rafflesia has bewitched botanists — its very elusiveness adding to its mystique. For Thorogood, who already specialised in parasitic plants, it became the apex of them all. He was Captain Ahab; this was his own great white whale -- Tom Whipple * The Times * These forests aren’t the familiar backdrop of nature documentaries; here, they’re the stars. In this overwhelming, densely woven setting, the boundaries between person, plant and environment start to dissolve, along with old assumptions about what plants are … Pathless Forest closes with Thorogood and Filipino colleagues poring over cryptic instructions, and praying over their own grafted vine. Whether or not a foul-smelling, magnificent Rafflesia eventually blooms, this is a gripping, Technicolor account of why their efforts matter -- Rachel Aspden * The Guardian * In his flamboyant account, Thorogood has produced a book as highly coloured as the plant itself. It will surely raise the profile of Rafflesia from stinking corpse flower to icon of Southeast Asian plant conservation -- Kate Teltscher * The Spectator * [Thorogood’s] description of the journey ‘into the abyss’ … has all the hallmarks of adventure: nearly drowning in a river, scaling cliffs while dangling on lainas, being bitten by giant ants and stung by toxic trees … But it was worth it … and he also makes a serious broader point. Rafflesia … are threatened and on the edge of extinction. For all their strangeness, the very rarity of these gigantic living objects symbolises our continuing carelessness towards nature -- Charles Elliott * Literary Review * What is truly inspiring about this book is the positive collaboration that is going on between experts around the world (including indigenous people with knowledge of these plants) to try to put conservation strategies in place and protect these species from extinction -- Elanor Wexler * Association of Botanical Artists *