These illustrated talks by Michael Holland will bring to life some of the many stories of some of our best-loved fruits - including aspects of their historical and geographical roots, folklore, symbolism, botany, nutrition, chemistry and more. Each of the four talks will zoom into a different plant family and highlight some of its most notable members, siblings and cousins.

This is one of the 4-part lecture series with 4 x 90 mins (max) sessions, once a week on Tuesday mornings, starting on 4th August.

You may join the individual sessions or the whole course. Please search Eventbrite for TALES FROM THE FRUIT BOWL on 4th August to see the full course details.

Attendees will be sent a Zoom link prior to the start of the session.

Zest and the rest: Oranges, Lemons and the citrus family

Members of this fruity family have worldwide appeal. The segments of this illustrated talk will touch upon world-changing medicinal and technological breakthroughs, tangy tastes, perfumery, electricity, etymology, religious symbolism and much more. What exactly is a tangelo? How ugly is the Ugli fruit? And when is grapefruit bad for you?

Michael Holland had a 25-year career at the renowned Chelsea Physic Garden in London, latterly as Head of Education for over 17 years. He has taught tens of thousands of people, aged 2 to 92, about the natural world. He is both a Fellow of the Linnean Society of London and of the London Environmental Educators’ Forum (LEEF) and has spoken at a number of global conferences and appeared on television and radio shows and podcasts about plants and history.