This was a book that could have been written just for me. The joy of botanising, and then to top that, on a bike! With special attention both to water-crowfoot and to mosses!! I spent three years researching water-crowfoot, which meant three very happy summers searching rivers all over Britain for them, measuring stuff, seeing what other plants were there, and so on. They are a much overlooked group, so it was great that he has them as a focus of one chapter and mentions them occasionally elsewhere.
I also know a lot of the places he visited in the book. Some of them to the exact spot (the summit of Ben Lawers, the place where the water-crowfoot grows by Haweswater), others the general habitat.
What he does exceptionally well, is to describe the emotions associated with botanising. The joy of finding a rare species you are searching for. The peaceful calm of spending an afternoon in a sunny meadow. The determination needed to brave the elements on a mountain top. My introduction to identifying Sphagnum species in the field was learning to collect one particular species when there was 30 cm of snow lying on top of everything.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book, it was a delight to read.