With Love. From an Invader: Rhododendrons, Empire, China and Me

This publication traces the story of Rhododendron ponticum—one of Britain’s most contested plants—through photography, archival material and botanical insight. Beginning with photographing a single love-heart-shaped ponticum bush every other day for a year, Wang Preston’s work journeys through landscapes, histories and emotions, revealing a plant entangled in questions of empire, ecology and belonging. Led by Yan Wang Preston, the book is co-edited with Emma Nicolson and Alan Elliott. It is published by the Eriskay Connection (NL) and Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh UK). The book features over 400 photographs by Yan Wang Preston, two archival image collections from Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, eight essays by Emma Nicolson, Alan Elliott, Bergit Arends, Matthew Gandy, Monty Adkins, Michael Pritchard, Liam Devlin, Yan Wang Preston, an interview with Cosima Towneley and a poem by Kate Kinoshita. The book is funded by University of Huddersfield’s Arts and Humanities Research Council Impact Accelerator Account.