Pineapple

"Fran Beauman's boyfriend once called her his pineapple - did he mean she was spiky, difficult and posh? Or spectacular, delicious and sexy? In this enchanting and fact-filled book, she explores why this golden fruit is so special. And in one, surprising sense, it is indeed ideal. Made up of a hundred of separate fruitlets, its scales are arranged in curving rows, with one set, always of eight, crossing another of thirteen- these spirals embody the gradations of the Golden Mean - it...
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"Fran Beauman's boyfriend once called her his pineapple - did he mean she was spiky, difficult and posh? Or spectacular, delicious and sexy? In this enchanting and fact-filled book, she explores why this golden fruit is so special. And in one, surprising sense, it is indeed ideal. Made up of a hundred of separate fruitlets, its scales are arranged in curving rows, with one set, always of eight, crossing another of thirteen- these spirals embody the gradations of the Golden Mean - it is, mathematically, perfect. The author's passion began with a childhood visit to the pineapple-shaped garden-retreat in Dunmore, Scotland and has taken her across the world, from Hawaii to the Philippines, from explorers' voyages to pineapple chunks. She looks at how the pineapple originated in tropical South America and spread to the West Indies- Columbus recorded the first tasting by a European on Guadeloupe in 1493. Sailors brought them home, but they seemed impossible to grow in our cold climates. It was almost two hundred years before a wealthy Dutchman succeeded, and from that point the fever took off, especially in Britain. In the eighteenth century they were so precious that shopkeepers wou