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The Herbalist: Nicholas Culpeper and the fight for medical freedom by Benjamin Woolley, Harper Collins, £16.99, ISBN 0007126573 Reviewed by Roy Herbert

THERE is not a lot known about the life of Nicholas Culpeper, who lived in 17th-century England in times of enormous turbulence, which were capped by the execution of Charles I. So Benjamin Woolley gives us a remarkable and superbly enjoyable history of the period in which Nicholas provides the highlights, as he appears in events from his extraordinary life.

Early days in Sussex aroused Culpeper’s interest in herbal remedies. He studied at the University of Cambridge and…

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