The Orchid Hunter: A Young Botanist’s Search for Happiness

In the summer after leaving school, a young botanist sets out to fulfil a childhood dream – to find every species of orchid native to the British Isles… He has just a few months to complete his quest – no one has ever done it before – and it will require ingenuity, stamina and a large dose of luck.

Like Two Owls at Eton and My Family and Other Animals, this is a charming, witty account of a precocious adolescent’s obsession with the natural world.

As he battles the vagaries of the British climate in his clapped-out van, feverishly chasing each emerging bloom, Leif Bersweden takes the reader on a remarkable botanical journey. This study of the 52 native species is a fantastic gateway into the compendious world of orchids – one that will open your eyes to the rare hidden delights to be found on hilltops and riverbanks, in woodland, marsh and field.