SHIRLEY, the life of a botanical adventurer

255pp., b/w & colour illus., hardback, d.w., Lewes, 2024

Research scientist Dr Shirley Sherwood, OBE, worked with her husband, Jim Sherwood, to restore the Orient-Express train, and to create the five-star Orient Express Hotels company (now Belmond), which owned the Mount Nelson hotel in Cape Town. In 1990 she began to build the Shirley Sherwood Collection of Contemporary Botanical Art, which now includes over 1000 paintings and drawings by more than 300 contemporary botanical artists from 36 countries. She has mounted exhibitions in many locations, including Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden. The Shirley Sherwood Gallery in Kew Gardens opened in 2008. She lives in Oxfordshire, London and Chianti.