7:00am Thursday 9th September 2010
By Eleanor Harding
A local author who worked at the Natural History Museum for four decades has published a book on plant folklore.
Roy Vickery, who stood as Tooting’s Green Party candidate in the last General Election, has been collecting material “plant-lore” since the early 1980s.
His fifth book, Garlands, Conkers and Mother-die: British and Irish Plant-lore, includes local plant names, legends, superstitions, children's games and customs.
Mr Vickery is the former curator of the Botany Department at the Natural History Museum in Kensington and current chairman of the South London Botanical Institue.
He now has an archive of over 11,000 items of information collected from over 1,300 contributors.
The book, published by Continuum, is available in bookshops now at £18.99.
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