Blooming mad over tulips

For a time in 17th century Holland, a kind of madness got a grip - Tulipomania.

Tulips still not yet out of the ground were exchanged for absurd prices. In 1636 a specimen of Semper Augustus fetched 10,000 guilders - the accumulated earnings of a skilled craftsman over a period of more than 40 years.

This extraordinary period has helped inspire the debut novel of a Shropshire author, 72-year-old Andrew Lewis of Horsehay.

“I have always liked reading historical novels and have always liked the thought of writing a book, but never had the time during my working life,” said Mr Lewis.

“I’m retired and I’m still very active. You can’t just sit around all day. You have to keep yourself occupied. My wife likes to play the piano, and while she plays the piano I like to jot down some of my book.”

Two years in the making, An Age of Madness has now been published.

“I had picked the title before I had written 10 pages,” said Mr Lewis.

“To me it did seem madness what was happening in Holland. They were the merchants of the world in those days and they were spending fortunes on a simple tulip bulb.”

The book is not, though, about flowers, although it is set against a background of Tulipomania.

During a sea voyage the main character steals what look like onion bulbs, but which are more valuable than diamonds. And the owner wants to get them back.

“There’s quite a bit of torture and quite a bit of nastiness,” says Mr Lewis.

“I remember reading books about Tulipomania many years ago and it stuck in my mind. I thought it would make a good background to a thriller, adventure-type book.

“About 18 months ago I was talking to my sons about different things, and I talked to them about Tulipomania. They didn’t believe it. It sounded so ridiculous, but it is a historical fact. There was a frenzied buying period. In the end people were buying tulips while they were still in the ground.”

The mania was focussed on highly-prized hybrids, but the knock-on effect also sent prices of ordinary tulips soaring.

“They weren’t like modern tulips. They were so brilliant in colour and shape. There was a virus in the plants that produced this.”

Of course, the bubble had to burst. The market suddenly collapsed.

Mr Lewis says none of the fabulous hybrids at the centre of Tulipomania - Semper Augustus, Viceroy, and Admiral van der Eijck - exist today. As their vibrant displays were the result of a plant virus, any attempts to reproduce them today are banned.

Born in Liverpool, father of five Mr Lewis has had a varied and well-travelled life. When he was very young he worked as a trainee buyer in the Stock Exchange before doing national service in the Royal Marines.

Among other roles, he served in the Liverpool Fire Brigade and was a tool and die maker before establishing a successful family business in the chemical industry in South Africa. It was not always smooth going - in 1994 one of his three sons, also called Andrew, was shot twice by robbers trying to steal his pick-up.

“He was shot in each arm and was lucky, being a big fellow and able to drive himself to hospital without stopping so they couldn’t finish him off.”

Not surprisingly his wife had had enough and they came back to Shrewsbury where he started a business.

Andrew senior retired at 65, and two of his sons continue to run the business in South Africa.

He is now writing his second book, which he says is a historical mystery.

As for flowers, he prefers roses to tulips. “I prefer flowers with perfume.”

Contrary to what you might expect, South Africa did not prove very congenial to rose-growing.

“I found in South Africa that it was quite hard to grow them as some of the insects used to eat them overnight, basically.”

An Age of Madness is published by Vanguard Press, an imprint of Pegasus Elliot MacKenzie Publishers of Cambridge, and costs £10.99. It is available through the publisher’s online bookshop which is at www.pegasuspublishers.com and at some bookshops. The ISBN is 9781843863830.