The Book of Pears

The Definitive History and Guide to over 500 varieties

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Summary

Winner of the Garden Media Guild Awards Reference Book of the Year 2016, the Guild of Food Writers Food Book of the year 2016, and the BBC Food & Farming Awards 2016 for Outstanding Achievement.
Accompanied by a beautiful and comprehensive website of the same name, this wonderfully unique book is an indispensable and one-of-a-kind guide. It tells the story of the pear from its delightful taste and wonderful appearance to breeding and cultivation, following the fruit’s journey through history and around the world.

Beautifully illustrated with 40 botanical watercolour paintings by Elisabeth Dowle, The Book of Pears is the most up-to-date and comprehensive guide to the pear. Moving through continents and cultures, Joan Morgan celebrates the pear’s long history as both a fresh and cooking fruit. Revealing the secrets of the pear as a status symbol, some of the most celebrated fruit growers in history, and how the pear came to be so important as an international commodity.

The pear directory, which makes up the second half of the book, covers the world’s ancient and modern varieties, each with full tasting notes and historical, geographical and horticultural detail. A fully illustrated version of this directory is shown on the author's website www.thebookofpears.fruitforum.net

Reviews

Joan Morgan’s magnificent new work on Pears…my food book of the year.. illustrated with Elizabeth Dowle’s exquisite paintings’
Nigel Slater, Instagram

About the author

Joan Morgan

Joan Morgan PhD is a pomologist and fruit historian, internationally renowned for her work on apples. In recognition of her work, Joan has been awarded the Royal Horticultural Society’s Veitch Memorial Medal (for contributions to the advancement of the ‘science and practice of horticulture’), and she is one of only 50 recipients of the Institute of Horticulture ‘Award for Outstanding Services to Horticulture’ and is an Honorary Freeman of the Worshipful Company of Fruiterers.

Joan is closely associated with the UK National Fruit Collection, Brogdale, Kent; The Book of Pears gives a Directory to its Pear Collection as The Book of Apples does for the Apple Collection. She is Chairman of the RHS Fruit Trials Forum and Vice Chairman of the RHS Fruit, Vegetable and Herb Committee.

Joan Morgan is the author, with Alison Richards, of The Book of Apples, The New Book of Apples, A Paradise out of a Common Field: the pleasures and plenty of the Victorian garden and a main contributor to The Downright Epicure, Essays on Edward Bunyard.

She has devoted many years to researching and compiling The Book of Pears.

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