{"product_id":"the-paper-garden-mrs-delany-begins-her-lifes-work-at-72","title":"The Paper Garden: Mrs Delany Begins Her Life's Work at 72","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Paper Garden is unlike anything else you have ever read. At once a biography of an extraordinary 18th century gentlewoman and a meditation on late-life creativity, it is a beautifully written tour de force from an acclaimed poet.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMary Granville Pendarves Delany (1700-1788) was the witty, beautiful and talented daughter of a minor branch of a powerful family. Married off at 16 to a 61-year-old drunken squire to improve the family fortunes, she was widowed by 25, and henceforth had a small stipend and a horror of a marriage.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eShe spurned many suitors over the next twenty years, including the powerful Lord Baltimore and the charismatic radical John Wesley. She cultivated a wide circle of friends, including Handel and Jonathan Swift. And she painted, she stitched, she observed, as she swirled in the outskirts of the Georgian court. In mid-life she found love, and married. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eUpon her husband's death 23 years later, she arose from her grief, picked up a pair of scissors and, at the age of 72, created a new art form, mixed-media collage. Over the next decade, Mrs Delany created an astonishing 985 botanically correct, breathtaking cut-paper flowers, now housed in the British Museum and referred to as the Botanica Delanica.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDelicately, Peacock has woven parallels in her own life around the story of Mrs Delany's and, in doing so, has made this biography into a profound and beautiful examination of the nature of creativity and art.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eGorgeously designed and featuring 35 full-colour illustrations, this is a sumptuous and lively book full of fashion and friendships, gossip and politics, letters and love. It's to be devoured as voraciously as one of the court dinners it describes.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Molly Peacock","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46826422010025,"sku":"9781921640797","price":19.99,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0424\/9518\/0962\/files\/9781921640797.jpg?v=1771555173","url":"https:\/\/roseyravelstonbooks.com.au\/products\/the-paper-garden-mrs-delany-begins-her-lifes-work-at-72","provider":"RoseyRavelston Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}