Cabbages and Kings by Jonathan Roberts, HarperCollins,
£18.99, ISBN 0002202077
IT WAS an easy mistake to make. Intent on establishing a silk industry in
Britain, James I ordained that mulberry trees be made available. Unfortunately,
he ordered the black variety, rather than the white on which the silkworm grows.
James never established sericulture, but instead left as his legacy mulberry
bushes that can still be found in the gardens of most 17th-century English
houses. This is but one of the hundreds of fascinating facts that fly off the
page in this invigorating run-through of the history of fruit and veg.…
