Product Description

This is a terrific, free-standing sequel to the historical bestseller "Earthly Joys", as John Tradescant, the Younger witnesses the English Civil War and its aftermath from his position as royal gardener. John Tradescant, the Younger has inherited his father's unique collection of plants along with his unerring ability to nurture them. But as gardener to Charles I, he confronts an unbearable dilemma when England descends into Civil War. Fleeing from the chaos, John travels to the Royalist colony of Virginia in America. But the virgin land is not uninhabited. John's plant hunting brings him to live with the native people, and he learns to love and respect their way of life just as it is threatened by the colonial settlers. In the new world and the old, the established order is breaking down and every family has to find its own way of surviving. For the Tradescants, through the upheavals of the Commonwealth and the Restoration, this means consolidating their reputations as the greatest gardeners in the country.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #40283 in Books
• Published on: 2000-02-07
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 576 pages

Review
'Gregory's remarkable achievement is to transform the known facts into a gripping story of adventurous horticulture, divided loyalties, racial hatred and high passion' Sue Gaisford, Mail on Sunday 'A brilliant continuation of Gregory's meticulously researched story of the Tradescant gardening family, begun with such panache in her bestselling EARTHLY JOYS! utterly gripping' Lisa Jardine, The Times 'delightful! exciting and fascinating! beguiling' Jessica Mann, Sunday Telegraph

About the Author
Philippa Gregory has a history degree from the University of Sussex and a PhD in nineteenth-century literature from the University of Edinburgh. She is a fellow of Kingston University. She lives with her family in Sussex.

Customer Reviews

Garden story continues
I loved Earthly Joys and was eager to read the sequel. I wasn't disappointed! Virgin Earth is the story of John Tradescant the Younger's adventures in the New World. As he tries to survive in a harsh environment, he finds romance. Will he ever return to Tradescant's Ark where his brave wife Hester fights to save the family tradition? (This is also the story of the beginning of the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford.)This novel has it all, passion, history, tragedy, and a great villain.

Virgin Earth - Stunning, stunning, stunning
After reading the magnificent Earthly Joys I clammered to get my hands on this to see what became of the Tradescant family. I was not disappointed. Philippa Gregory certainly interprets history in a way that helps her weave a captivating story but there are no far fetched assumptions in this book. Her books are like the best history lesson you have ever attended, they catapult the reader to the 1600's as though it were the most natural thing in the world. John Tradescant Junior is an opposite in everyway to his father but carries some of the characteristics that we so admired about JT senior. His life twists and turns in such a way that you fight within yourself whilst working out which route he should take; and then supporting his choices. The detail in this book is magical, one minute you can smell the exotic plants of Virginia and the next you feel as though you are being ravaged by the Civil War.
An inspirational book - will make you search engine crackers for every drop of information that can be had about the Tradescant family.

One man, two countries, two wars, two families.....
John Tradescant the younger is the King's gardener in an England that is on the brink of civil war. To escape the troubles John travels to the colony of Jamestown in Virginia to search for new plant species but he finds that this Virgin Earth is not uninhabited and has troubles of its own.

The white settlers are helping themelves to the Native Indian's land at will, burning crops and trying to drive the indians out. So begins a bizarre series of events that sees John fall in love and enter into a marriage with a young Native girl called Suckahanna and begin to live as a native. John becomes fully absorbed in the native culture until war looms and John is forced to make a brutal choice between his Indian wife and tribe and his own people.

John returns to England to find that his family are caught in the midst of the war. It is impossible to remain neutral in such times and the divided loyalties are threatening to tear the family apart. Will John ever be able to decide where his loyalties truly lie? and when he does will it be too late to save those that he loves?