Anna Chapman Parker

Understorey:
A Year Among Weeds

‘It began as a way of drawing nothing – as near as I could get to that. No time to think – just drop down and draw whatever was growing there’

In gardens, verges or clustered around municipal lampposts, weeds offer an everyday wildness to even the most urban setting. But what is the story of these familiar plants that accompany our every step, yet pass beneath our notice?

How and when do they emerge, bloom and subside, and what would it mean to notice them fully?

Understorey follows Chapman over the course of a year as she observes these strange, tenacious plants, and meditates on how artists and writers throughout history have portrayed them, from the bramble framing a sixth-century Byzantine manuscript to a kudzu vine installation in contemporary Frankfurt. Beautifully illustrated throughout, it is a book that explores what is gained when we pay attention to the smallest things. [publishers’ description]

Praise for Understorey:

‘Anna Chapman Parker weaves together art history, botany, ecosystems, and the routines of everyday life in this gracefully illuminating account of a year drawing weeds. Through the shifting seasons, Chapman Parker’s drawings and prose reveal the extraordinary value of plants that are generally taken for granted, ignored, or obliterated, and the power of stopping to look carefully, pen in hand’
– Alixe Bovey, Dean and Deputy Director at The Courthauld

‘A beautiful, quiet, achingly tender book. A year spent with weeds; giving voice to the exquisite and the everyday alike ... It’s a reminder that the circle always turns; the light always comes back’ 
– Kerri ní Dochartaigh, author of Thin Places

'This thoughtful and beautifully written book is a balm to the soul … part artist's diary, and part meditation on the process of drawing: what it means to look, take time to observe, and to attempt to record what we see. It's hard to overstate how thoughtful and well written this book is, or the impact it had on my too-busy, somewhat frazzled mind. I drank it in and it has changed me forever'
– Victoria MacKenzie, author of For Thy Great Pain Have Mercy On My Little Pain

'This tranquil, meditative book is all about the quiet pleasure of examining something closely in order to truly appreciate it' 
– Daily Mail

‘A year of sketching and musing on the unplanted, unplanned, unremarkable greenery that surrounds us all every day. A celebration of disorder and doing nothing – the perfect antidote to the modern belief that something only exists once it’s been captured by your phone’
– Ken Thompson, author of Common or Garden

'Anna Chapman Parker approaches the struggle to find creative fulfillment in a world full of distraction with the same generosity she extends to some of our most overlooked and downtrodden urban flora. This book is as clear-eyed as it is beautiful'
– Florence Wilkinson, author of Wild City

‘A delicately written study of the joys and difficulties of paying attention’ – Jessie Greengrass, author of The High House

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Published by Duckworth Books · Memoir / Nature / Art
Publication date: 6 June 2024 (HB) / 1 May 2025 (PB)
304 pages · ISBN 9780715655207 / 978-0715655689

For PR or sales queries, please contact Matt Casbourne: matt@duckworthbooks.com