Painting the Amazon

From best-selling author of The Africa House - the extraordinary story of a very English lady in the world's largest rainforest Everything that grows in Brazil seems several times larger than anywhere else on earth. Leaves unfurl the size of tablecloths, roots swell thick and grainy as elephants legs, flowers are pouting and voluptuous, plants that belong to the beginning of time. The Amazon is home to more species than any other country in the world - an estimated 90,000 plants - only a fraction of which are known today. Many of those were discovered, named, and painted by Margaret Mee - the first female explorer of the Amazon. Born in 1909, Margarat Mee was a painter, socialist and espouser of causes. Glamorous and bohemian, with flame-red hair, she fled the misery of post-war London, and her first husband, and travelled to Brazil. The obscene plenty of the Amazon and its plants became a lifelong obsession and this tiny, birdlike Englishwoman was to make 15 expeditions into uncharted rainforest, disappearing into the jungle for months at a time, often completely alone.
Paddling up tributaries in her canoe, she caught malaria and hepatitis, was attacked by giant anacondas and vampire bats, fled from jaguars and illegal goldminers and came into contact with Indians who had never seen a white man, let alone an English woman. Her mission however was to discover and to paint as many of the Amazon's plant species as possible. She became a celebrated botanist and expert for both Kew Gardens and the Smithsonian Institute. She was also the first leading spokesman in the Save the Amazon campaign - the destruction of the forest horrified her. She captured the hearts and souls of the Brazilian nation and had a parade dedicated to her memory at the Rio carnival - the greatest honour that Cariocas can bestow. Beautifully produced using many of Mee's own paintings, Christina Lamb's glorious storytelling brings this extraordinary woman back to life.