Whether you are interesting in the history of gardening or the history of food, you will find this an interesting and very attractive book. Covering around 40 of the most popular fruits and vegetables, it looks at their botanical origins of the species in the wild, how they first entered cultivation and the diet, then their development, breeding and spread throughout the world. All this is lavishly illustrated with examples from antiquity to modern art.
It's not an academic work, but certainly more than your average coffee table/gift book and very readable. ( )