Eden by Tim Smit (Hardcover, 2001)

In March 2001 the completed Eden Project in Cornwall opened its gates to the public for the first time. Out of a disused china clay pit had risen the remarkable biomes and structures that have so captured the public imagination since building began in 1997. The vision of a living theatre of plants and people, and refuge for the world's endangered species, had at last been realized. Since opening, hundreds of thousands of people have poured through the gates, and have been left in no doubt that here was a venture of unparalleled ambition and imagination, and one that just might change the world in the way it had set out to. Tim Smit, who was instrumental in the discovery and restoration of the Lost Gardens of Heligan, was not the only begetter of the Eden Project. It arose out of discussions with Heligan colleagues in the early 1990s about the exploits of the great plant hunters, and the realization that plants, even the humble potato, had exciting stories to tell. Suppose they built .