Fern Fever : The Story of Pteridomania

Pteridomania or Fern Fever took a frantic hold in Britain from the 1840s. It was a craze fostered by an array of books and magazines and special equipment designed for fern hunting trips and the cultivation of the finds in delicate fern cases. Sarah Whittingham has searched every nook and cranny for her subject, finding ferns in splendid glazed ferneries, Pulhamite grottoes and decoratively across every imaginable surface in the Victorian home. You would sit on your Coalbrookdale 'Fern and blackberry' garden bench and sup from your Ridgway 'Maiden Hair Fern' dinner service. The industrious Victorians lavished much love and care (and knowledge) on their beautiful fern albums. This ravishing book shines a sympathetic light on an enthusiasm that looks as if it might well take hold again.

Sarah Whittingham is an architectural writer and lecturer. The Victorian Fern Craze was published by Shire books in 2009.