Chris Thorogood is a botanist and lecturer at the University of Oxford, where he holds the position of Deputy Director and Head of Science at Oxford Botanic Garden and Arboretum, and a Visiting Professor at the University of the Philippines. His research focuses on the evolution of parasitic and carnivorous plants, taxonomic diversity in biodiversity hotspots around the world, and biomimetics - exploring the potential applications of plants in technology. An author and broadcaster, he makes regular appearances on TV and radio and is also an award-winning botanical illustrator and wildlife artist. Obsessed with plants, he is on a mission to make us see them differently, and realize how we, they, and our planet, are all connected.
Over the years, Rafflesia has bewitched botanists — its very elusiveness adding to its mystique. For Thorogood, who already specialised in parasitic plants, it became the apex of them all. He was Captain Ahab; this was his own great white whale -- Tom Whipple * The Times * These forests aren’t the familiar backdrop of nature documentaries; here, they’re the stars. In this overwhelming, densely woven setting, the boundaries between person, plant and environment start to dissolve, along with old assumptions about what plants are … Pathless Forest closes with Thorogood and Filipino colleagues poring over cryptic instructions, and praying over their own grafted vine. Whether or not a foul-smelling, magnificent Rafflesia eventually blooms, this is a gripping, Technicolor account of why their efforts matter -- Rachel Aspden * The Guardian * In his flamboyant account, Thorogood has produced a book as highly coloured as the plant itself. It will surely raise the profile of Rafflesia from stinking corpse flower to icon of Southeast Asian plant conservation -- Kate Teltscher * The Spectator * [Thorogood’s] description of the journey ‘into the abyss’ … has all the hallmarks of adventure: nearly drowning in a river, scaling cliffs while dangling on lainas, being bitten by giant ants and stung by toxic trees … But it was worth it … and he also makes a serious broader point. Rafflesia … are threatened and on the edge of extinction. For all their strangeness, the very rarity of these gigantic living objects symbolises our continuing carelessness towards nature -- Charles Elliott * Literary Review *