DR LAURA PREMACK is a writer, historian, coach and artist who writes about history, nature, landscape and politics. She holds a BA in the History of European Imperialism and an MA and PhD in Global History. She was most recently Lecturer in Global Religion and Politics at Lancaster University. She has held Fulbright-Hays, Andrew W. Mellon, and Gerda Henkel Stiftung fellowships, and was twice shortlisted for the AHRC/BBC Next Generation Thinkers award. After holding academic appointments in the US, UK, Nigeria and Brazil, Laura trained as a gardener at Holehird Gardens in the Lake District. It was through studying for her Royal Horticultural Society qualification that Laura found herself writing her new history, Botanica. Laura considers home to be New England, where she grew up, and Cumbria, where she lives today with her partner and children.