Chris Howkins - UK Ethnobotanist, Writer, Publisher and Illustrator

Chris Howkins has researched information on the use of plants in Britain for over forty years, so his database is now reckoned to be the third largest on the subject in the country. It includes material on both practical and ritual usages: from the sacred plants of ancient religions through to the Ivy and Mistletoe at Christmas and for the practical uses, everything from food and medicine, furniture and dozens of everyday commodities. Not only have the preferred plants been identified but also information on how they were actually used. This all comes together to answer the basic question, How did we used to live? Apart from searching documents, visits are made wherever possible to see craftsmen practicing the traditional skills, so that the material is enriched with the knowledge that can only be accrued from first-hand experience. So there have been wonderful visits to wheelwrights, millwrights, thatchers, harpsichord-makers, etc. All this is published in very readable everyday English, enhanced with beautiful line drawings of the plants and craftsmen and their landscapes.