A Voyage Through Plants: Katia Astafieff and Marianne North

Join us to hear from Katia Astafieff, the 2026 Randell Cottage French Writer in Residence, who has a particular interest in botanical history and popularising scientific subjects. While in New Zealand, she is researching the work of Marianne North, an Englishwoman who travelled to Australia and New Zealand in 1880 and painted remarkable illustrations of indigenous flora. Marianne is recognised for the scientific accuracy with which she documented plant life before photography was a practical option.

Katia is an award-winning writer whose wide-ranging publications include:

• Par les chemins des Indes: Sur les traces du botaniste français qui aurait pu devenir vice-roi du Cachemire (Along Indian Routes: In the Footsteps of the French Botanist Who Could Have Become Vice-Roy of Kashmir, Paulsen, 2025) which traces the story of Victor Jacquemont’s botanical travels in the 1840s.
• L’Aventure extraordinaire des plantes voyageuses, (The Extraordinary Adventure of the Travelling Plants, Dunod, 2018), which tells the story of eleven plants and eleven explorers.
• Mauvaises graines: La surprenante histoire des plantes qui piquent, qui brûlent et qui tuent! (Bad Seeds: The Surprising Story of Plants that Sting, Burn and Kill!, Dunod, 2021) which explores the secrets of dangerous plants.

This event is free but registration is required due to limited space in the house. Please note that this event will take place upstairs, see the Accessibility page of our website for more information.

You can also attend this event online via Zoom. If you register to attend via Zoom, a link will be sent to you at the bottom of the ticket you receive by email.

If you would prefer to register via email, please click this link. Due to our very small team, if you email after 5pm on the day of the event, we can't guarantee you'll receive the link in time.