“Graceful yet precise, poetic yet deeply rooted in research, this exploration of an overlooked painter is gorgeous — a joy to read. Molly Peacock’s insights and empathy with her subject bring to life both Mary Hiester Reid and her luscious flower paintings.” — Charlotte Gray, author of The Massey Murder Molly Peacock uncovers the history of neglected painter Mary Hiester Reid, a trailblazing artist who refused to choose between marriage and a career. Born into a patrician American family in the middle of the nineteenth century, Mary Hiester Reid was determined to be a painter and left behind women’s design schools to enter the art world of men. After she married fellow artist George Reid, she returned with him to his home country of Canada. There she set about creating over 300 stunning still life and landscape paintings, inhabiting a rich, if sometimes difficult, marriage, coping with a younger rival, exhibiting internationally, and becoming well-reviewed. She studied in Paris, traveled in Spain, and divided her time between Canada and the United States where she lived among America’s Arts and Crafts movement titans. She left slender written records; rather, her art became her diary and Flower Diary unfolds with an artwork for each episode of her life. In this sumptuous and precisely researched biography, celebrated poet and biographer Molly Peacock brings Mary Hiester Reid, foremother of painters such as Georgia O’Keefe, out of the shadows, revealing a fascinating, complex woman who insisted on her right to live as a married artist, not as a tragic heroine. Peacock uses her poet’s skill to create a structurally inventive portrait of this extraordinary woman whom modernism almost swept aside, weaving threads of her own marriage with Hiester Reid’s, following the history of empathy and examining how women manage the demands of creativity and domesticity, coping with relationships, stoves, and steamships, too. How do you make room for art when you must go to the market to buy a chicken for dinner? Hiester Reid had her answers, as Peacock gloriously discovers.

“Whatever the subject, rich music follows the tap of Molly Peacock’s baton.”—Washington Post When a psychoanalyst became a painter after surviving a stroke, her longtime patient, distinguished and beloved poet Molly Peacock, took up a unique task. Weaving an invigorating tapestry of images, Peacock’s poetry bears witness to a profound role reversal as its author looks back on a forty-year relationship with her one-time analyst, now friend.

Another title in Jean Ure’s acclaimed series of humorous and poignant stories. There’s trouble ahead when Steph and Sam’s father embarks on a spot of kidnapping.

A Perpetual Diary to record Birthdays with Birthstone and Flower-of-the-Month information included. Lavishly illustrated with hand-drawn Birth Flower and Gem illustrations. A handy chart with the meanings of the flowers and gems is also included. The book is a perfect Birthday or Mother's Day gift, and makes a nice Birth Flower collectible item.

The Birthday Book with Birth Flowers and Gems is a book to record the birth dates and contact information of family and friends in one beautiful place. Each month's starter page and the weekly double spreads are richly illustrated with artwork of the month's birthstone and flower-of-the-month. A handy chart with the meanings of the flowers and gems is also included. The illustrations were taken from the Anni Arts printable craft ranges, as well as from engravings of antique lace and embroidery patterns.