Book Amanda Edmiston (Botanica Fabula)
Herbal Storyteller, author and interdisciplinary practitioner Amanda Edmiston (Botanica Fabula) , comes from a long line of artists, storytellers, writers and plant people. Initially mentored by her mother: storyteller Jean Edmiston, then by acclaimed Scottish traveller writer and storyteller Jess Smith, Amanda has been sharing her own unique blend of herbal storytelling: Botanica Fabula, informed by her background in herbal medicine, across the UK and internationally for over 16 years.
Much of her work centres on interdisciplinary, intergenerational projects, in collaboration with heritage sites, botanic gardens and other artists, gathering memories of plant use and embedding them into multidimensional creative pieces. Previous projects have resulted in exhibitions with storytelling elements, magical feasts with a tale for each herbily infused course, sculpture trails, gardens full of herbal stories, online courses, conferences and school residencies, many of which can be found in the archive pages of her website.
She has also been commissioned to create storytelling performance pieces and workshops for The Scottish International Storytelling festival, Pana Wakke storytelling education touring China and for The National Storytelling Network of America amongst others!
Amanda’s first book The Time Traveller’s Herbal, published by David and Charles, offers readers an immersion into her work, a unique blend of folklore, fairy-tale, myth, legend, social history and the way we work with plants, revealing the science that is embedded in the folklore. Reviewer: folklorist DeeDee Chainey called it as ‘a magical tome that belongs on all bookshelves’ The story continues in 2026 in Amanda’s second book ‘Collected Curiosities’.
Described as having ‘an inimitable, often humorous, and compelling performance style’ by Dr Valentina Bold. Amanda collaborated on the award nominated ‘Up the Middle Road’ project, a creative event informed by the former patients of staff of ‘The Crichton’ one of Europe’s former leading mental hospitals, the resulting piece featuring music, research and storytelling performance, can be viewed on film here: Up the Middle Road
Amanda is also lucky enough to have been been commissioned to create herbal storytelling workshops for children and adults for award winning documentary film ‘Lost for Words’, for a Polish television series and subsequent panel talks, workshops and appearances at Maltafest and for creative product launches and events for Brewdog, and Cask 88, As well as workshops for The Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons in Glasgow, the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford and Chelsea Physic garden in London, amongst others.
She loves travelling and relishes meeting new people and discovering new collaborative ways of creating and works with a wide range of organisations and all age groups, layering her work with her knowledge of herbal medicine offering audiences multisensory experiences embellished by tastes, scents and engagement with the natural environment, our shared heritage and the plants we live alongside.
Amanda holds PVG scheme membership and UK enhanced DBS to work with both children and vulnerable adults and public liability insurance as a member of Equity and is an Associate member of The National Institute of Medical Herbalists.
