Wow, after more than five years of combing the streets of Newcastle, identifying plants and trying rather hard to piece together a legible book, The Urban Flora of Newcastle and North Tyneside is finally complete!

If you follow me on social media, you’ll know this has been quite a fun week, and one which has definitely surpassed the expectations of this slightly bewildered urban botanist. First, there was a lovely piece of coverage in the Journal, followed by a delightful short Country Diary entry from Susie White, and later that day, very welcome blogs from the Natural History Society of Northumbria and the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland. Not a bad spot of coverage for what is, by my own admission, a rather niche little book.

The good news didn’t stop there. On Monday, I had the privilege of giving a talk at Newcastle University, officially launching the Flora for more than 100 NHSN members. A recording of this can be found below.

I am incredibly grateful to the authors, platforms and organisations mentioned above who have helped spread the word about my little passion project, and to all of the people and groups on social media who have shared it further (there have been rather a lot of you!). Because of you, it seems some people have actually been buying the book, which is both humbling and a little terrifying to see. Whether it ends up on a few dozen bookshelves or a few hundred (I am rather hoping for the latter), I am simply delighted that people might enjoy reading about Newcastle and its wild plants. There are rather a lot of them to contend with.

Now that things have cooled down a little, I wanted to use this opportunity, and this blog, to offer a few well-deserved thank yous to those who helped along the way. From a book perspective, John Bullar was an incredibly patient and helpful designer. Karl Egeland-Eriksen superbly filled the rather large gap in my knowledge that is geology, and several people, Charlotte, Ellie, Sacha and Matt, kindly helped with proofreading along the way. Then there was the photography, much of which can be attributed to Chris Barlow, who has helped enormously with documenting the city’s plants.

Truthfully, the Urban Flora owes a great deal to many people. To the recorders across Newcastle who shared records, to those who joined me on walks and surveys, and to the many people who encouraged me during my all too frequent wobbles, thank you. Many of these individuals are listed in the acknowledgements, but as it’s likely more people may read this post than see the physical book, I wanted to repeat my gratitude here.

Reflecting on it all, I am immensely proud of the project and the final result. There will undoubtedly be errors, issues and the odd typo (have I ever mentioned that I’m not a writer?), but more importantly I think I have achieved what I hoped to at the outset: to create something that landowners, conservation organisations and local groups can use to understand the plants on their land, and that local people might use to find and enjoy a wide selection of these for themselves. The data gathered will hopefully be put to good use, and perhaps some people will find it genuinely interesting as well.

All that said, that’s a wrap. My husband is certainly glad to have regained most of his weekends, and I will now have to contend with rather more free time now that it’s over. I’m sure I’ll find something else to occupy me…

If you are inspired to purchase a copy of the book, it is available now on Amazon and via the Natural History Society of Northumbria. Links to which are found below.