We love all our new books, but some stand out. The Journey of Neil, the Great Dixter Cat, presented to the library by Fergus Garrett during his September visit to Seattle, tells the fascinating story of a kitten from the streets of Kabul, Afghanistan who came to be a popular fixture at the well-known garden in Sussex. The kitten's naming, personality, friendships with Fergus and others at Great Dixter, and adventures with the garden's resident dachshunds, Conifer and Miscanthus (one of whom is shown leaping after Neil in the image above) are all presented in Dabin Han's lively illustrations, along with key elements of the history of Afghanistan. Check it out!

I grew up with an appreciation of nature that was mediated by words and books. Reading widely and voraciously filled my head with words for certain plants years before I ever saw them in person. Then, when I began to read gardening and botany books in preparation for this exhibition, I was drawn to descriptions that anthropomorphized nature, like referring to categories of plants as “families.”

The work in this exhibition is the result of a generous interpretation of “nature.” Birdsong emerges from a human throat; flowers grow hands and faces.