This illustrated volume collects the best of Miranda Seymour’s weekly pieces for the Independent.

Each piece covers a single herb, whether henbane, parsley, cannabis or woad, and describes its characteristics, its growing habits tame or wild, its effects, the lore and beliefs attached to it, and the history of its use. The result is a compendium of plant information – often useful and fascinating and occasionally very strange.

Here you can discover what Homer’s Greeks used as sleeping potions and what the Romans took for indigestion, why Henry VIII fined any farmer who refused to grow marijuana, and which herb the 72-year-old Queen of Hungary used to extract a proposal from the King of Poland.

You can also discover the herb used today to counter the detrimental effects of chemotherapy, or which one you could use as a shampoo, or to stun fish, or wear as underwear. Each of the herbs is entertainingly introduced and illustrated by Jane Macfarlane’s line drawings.

The book should delight any cook or gardener, and also anyone dedicated to healthy eating or intrigued by ancient folklore.