About the book: 2011 / The fame of the skilled gardener John Tradescant resounds throughout England in the seventeenth century. But what makes him an invaluable servant is not his skill and impeccable taste, but his honesty and endless devotion to his master. As a confidant of Sir Robert Cecil, advisor to King James I, Tradescant witnesses history being made - from the Gunpowder Plot to the rise of King Charles I and the growing hostility between Parliament and Court. The gardener's talents soon attract the attention of the most powerful man in the land - the irresistible Duke of Buckingham, lover of King Charles I. Buckingham is unlike everyone Tradescant knew before: shocking, incomparably charming and completely reckless. Everything that Tradescant was previously sure of in life - love for his wife and children, passion for work, loyalty to country - all ceases to matter when he decides to follow Buckingham to the royal court, to war and into the forbidden territories of love.