Welcome to Litsy!

In the summer after leaving school, a young botanist sets out to fulfil a childhood dream - to find every species of orchid native to the British Isles... He has just a few months to complete his quest - no one has ever done it before - and it will require ingenuity, stamina and a large dose of luck. Like Two Owls at Eton and My Family and Other Animals, this is a charming, witty account of a precocious adolescent's obsession with the natural world. As he battles the vagaries of the British climate in his clapped-out van, feverishly chasing each emerging bloom, Leif Bersweden takes the reader on a remarkable botanical journey. This study of the 52 native species is a fantastic gateway into the compendious world of orchids - one that will open your eyes to the rare hidden delights to be found on hilltops and riverbanks, in woodland, marsh and field.