Gardening and George Orwell might not be the first pairing that comes to mind but he uses gardening metaphors in his writing and made many notes about the growth of vegetables and flowers he had planted. Rebecca Solnit discusses how this focus helps us understand his work and that of other writers interested in flowers. Shahidha Bari is also joined by Amy de la Haye, curator and author of 'Ravishing: The Rose in Fashion', Randy Malamud, whose study of cut flowers in culture is called 'Strange Bright Blooms', and Simon Morley, author of 'By Any Other Name: A Cultural History Of The Rose'.

Orwell's Roses by Rebecca Solnit is out now. You can hear her discussing her ideas about truth in a previous episode of Free Thinking https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0008wc1

Producer: Luke Mulhall