Laura Freeman Laura Freeman

Every page of this astonishingly beautiful ode to the citrus is a treat

J.C. Volkamer's illustrations – a sunny, sensuous pleasure – are extraordinary

A sensuous, sunny pleasure: one of Volkamer’s knobbly, carbuncled citrons, ‘Cedro a Zucheta’, hovering over Verona’s Odoli Garden. Credit: © Stadtarchiv Fürth, Germany

There’s an episode of Yes Minister called ‘Equal Opportunities’. Minister Jim Hacker is under pressure to recruit more women to the civil service. The hunt is on for female mandarins. ‘Ah,’ says principal private secretary Bernard. ‘Sort of… satsumas?’ At this time of year, I can’t help thinking of Bernard as I hover in the Co-op over nets of tangerines, mandarins, clementines, satsumas and ‘easy peelers’, whatever they are.

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