Mrs Delany

In 1772 Mrs Delany (1700-1788) wrote to her niece 'I have a new way of imitating flowers'. With her wonderful eye for botanical detail, she cut minute pieces of paper to create her famous flower collages, now to be enjoyed by everyone in the British Museum.

Theses "paper mosaics" of flowers, made from hundreds of pieces of cut coloured paper, were the crowning achievement of a long and creative life. Mrs Delany was 72 before she embarked on the 1000 flower collages, but she had already made a name for herself with her exquisite works of embroidery, decorative shell work and landscape sketches.

Through a study of Mrs Delany's correspondence, the author Ruth Hayden recaptures the atmosphere of privileged society in 18th-century England. Mrs Delany's perspective and lively letters to her sister Anne and her niece Mary reveal her often strong views on the events of the period and on the social life of her circle. Luminaries of social, political and artistic life enliven her correspondence. She was a friend of Handel and the correspondent of Swift. Her deep friendship with the Duchess of Portland brought her into contact with some of the greatest botanical artists and botanists of the time.

This book is a fascinating study of a woman who was was never very wealthy nor held no powerful positions at court but she was extremely well-connected and respected in the influential circles of Georgian Britain.