LIKE many great literary stories our tale begins with a chance encounter. In this case, the author Sara Sheridan was enjoying a coffee at the Edinburgh restaurant Contini's in late 2019 when her phone pinged with a text message.
It was from her agent who, at that moment, was meeting with a book editor. Sheridan's agent was keen for all three to get together. "I am in Contini's," read the message. "I am in Contini's," replied an incredulous Sheridan.
Recounting this serendipitous sequence of events, Sheridan laughs. "It is the most synchronicity I have ever had in anything," she says.
With the trio swiftly encased at one table, Sheridan waxed lyrical about women's history in Edinburgh – "the female artists, scientists, salonnieres, writers, philosophers and sex workers whose legacy has been consistently underplayed" – at the tail end of the Enlightenment.
This passionate pitch led to her being commissioned to write a historical novel with the brief that it should capture the spirit of the city and the fascinating women who lived there during this period.
Fast forward to 2021 and Sheridan has come up with the goods. The Fair Botanists is set in summer 1822 against a backdrop of Edinburgh abuzz with change and excitement, not least swirling rumours about King George IV's impending visit.
The book opens with a remarkable spectacle: a procession of trees being carted through the city streets. "Alder and ash, cedar and fir, oak and willow, trees of twenty, thirty and forty feet transplanted into huge wooden barrels proceeding one behind the other," writes Sheridan.
Under the instruction of head gardener William McNab, the collection from the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RBGE) is being slowly and painstakingly moved from its former home at Leith Walk to Inverleith.
This is based on a real-life event, which took place between 1820 and 1823, when the garden's many plants, bushes, flowering shrubs, aloes and cacti were transported to its current location.
"They had an amazing collection," says Sheridan. "McNab moved thousands upon thousands of plants – it was phenomenal. This was the heyday of botanical exploration around the world that we were coming into with the expansion of the British Empire.
"All these British ships going off to different places very often had a doctor who was also a botanist or zoologist. They would collect plants and seeds, then donate them to the herbariums."
Sheridan has penned more than 20 books including cosy crime noir set in 1950s Britain (her popular Mirabelle Bevan Mystery series) and historical novels based on the real-life stories of late Georgian and early Victorian explorers.
"I have written lots of things from 1820, 1830 and 1840 – that is a period I know well," she says. "Although, normally, it is more about explorers and adventurers on a physical journey."
The Fair Botanists allowed Sheridan to set the story in her hometown of Edinburgh. She spent hours researching the archives at RBGE to glean botanical gems, as well as browsing old maps at the National Library of Scotland to build a realistic picture of how the city might have looked.
The novel centres on two markedly different women. Elizabeth Rocheid is newly widowed and has arrived in Edinburgh from London to live with her late husband's aunt at Inverleith House, while Isabel "Belle" Brodie is carving a living as the city's most upmarket courtesan.
An unlikely friendship blossoms between the pair thanks to their shared interest: botany. Elizabeth is commissioned by McNab to do some sketches and illustrations of the gardens. Belle, a self-taught perfumier, is seeking elusive ingredients to make a seductive elixir.
A rare horticultural event is unfolding on their doorstep. The Agave Americana plant looks set to flower – an event that occurs once every few decades.
Sheridan describes The Fair Botanists as "a bit of a romp", adding she wasn't sure initially if the editor who commissioned it would like the finished book.
"It is quite cheeky and has a lot of detail in it," says Sheridan. "But she [editor Emma Herdman] really liked the narrative voice and that dry sense of humour. It is a little bit reminiscent of some female writers of that era, like Jane Austen or Mary Brunton."
The Fair Botanists is a Who's Who of the Enlightenment in Edinburgh, with many well-known figures making cameo appearances. Such as the great novelist Sir Walter Scott helping to draw up the guest list for a lavish royal ball to mark the historic visit by King George IV.
The late Robert Burns gets a notorious name check when it emerges that a stableman employed by the Rocheid household is alleged to be late poet's illegitimate son. Meanwhile, there is a tongue-in-cheek mention for philosopher David Hume as the crush of the eccentric Lady Clementina.
Botanist and physician Robert Graham, the 6th Regius Keeper of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, attempts to wangle an invite to the big royal soiree and makes some questionable life choices as the plot progresses.
But it is the women who are the beating heart of the novel. Belle and Elizabeth, each in their own way, are making their mark on the world.
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"They are quite differently strong," says Sheridan. "Elizabeth could have just shut the door at Inverleith House and never gone out, but the gardens provided an outlet for her. She had experience with botanical illustration and that was something a lot of women got involved with.
"Some of the best botanical illustrators were women. You see this right through the Georgian era and into the Victorian era. There were quite a few around Edinburgh within those hundred years."
Belle, meanwhile, is a character that Sheridan drew from various sources to create. "There was quite a sex trade in Edinburgh right through the Georgian period," she says. "You get little glimpses of these women's lives because they are up before the magistrates and there are legal records.
"There was a woman called Margaret Burns who lived on Rose Street. Robert Burns wrote a poem about her. She was quite a sparky figure. There were lots of things the magistrates might do if you were caught selling sex. One was you would get banned from the city limits.
"Margaret was told to leave her rooms and she refused to go. She was quite famous for being strong-minded. So, there is a little bit of Margaret in Belle, then some of the very upmarket courtesans that you read about during the Georgian era, such as Harriette Wilson in London."
Belle's love of the art of making scented potions is one that Sheridan shares. The author co-founded a perfume range, Reek, in 2016. One of the fragrances was called Damn Rebel Bitches, named in tribute to the lives of Jacobite women.
"We have closed Reek now, but quite a bit of our stuff has been collected by the National Museum of Scotland and the Glasgow Women's Library," she says. "It was a big, interesting project and nice that they consider it important enough to collect.
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"I have always been interested in perfume. Creatives often approach the world with different ways of interacting and for me perfume is one of those. If you read my novels, quite often that sense of smell is there. It is something that is genuinely of my voice."
Sheridan published Where Are The Women? in 2019, bringing together more than 1,200 stories of Scottish women from history whose achievements had been overlooked or forgotten. Some of that research carried into The Fair Botanists.
They include a nod to novelist Mary Brunton, salonniere Alison Cockburn and Henrietta Liston, a botanist whose papers are held at the National Library of Scotland.
"I was trying to remember all those women," says Sheridan. "Often in historical fiction, people go immediately to the names you will recognise and largely they are male.
"I do use Sir Walter Scott, Robert Burns and Adam Smith, but it is nice to make sure that is balanced with books by women that people perhaps don't realise were as important as they were at the time."
The Fair Botanists by Sara Sheridan is published by Hodder & Stoughton, priced £16.99. Sara Sheridan: On the Scent of Untold Riches is at the Edinburgh International Book Festival on Tuesday. The author is also participating in One City: A Just Capital? on August 23. Visit edbookfest.co.uk
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