What are the ingredients for a successful career as a botanical artist? In The Tapestry of Life, Susan Christopher-Coulson shares her compulsion to collect and then record the botanical treasures she finds and details some of her favourite tools and methods, making this book both beautiful and useful.

What are the ingredients for a successful career as a botanical artist? In The Tapestry of Life, Susan Christopher-Coulson identifies the threads that have formed the warp and weft of her profession: the natural world and her love of drawing woven together with skills in design and making. Working in coloured pencils on board or watercolour paper, Susan''s enthusiasm for joyful juxtapositions of colour and form is infectious and a practical section detailing the tools of her trade along with a step-by-step tutorial featuring a broken English Florists'' tulip will equip readers interested in trying the medium for themselves. Take inspiration from the compositions, the subjects and the presentation of Susan''s award-winning work but most of all, from the joy that permeates this account of a life spent making botanical art.