The thirty-eight flower remedies discovered by Dr Edward Bach were described by him as bringing courage to the fearful, peace to the anguished and strength to those who are weak. Julian Barnard’s Bach Flower Remedies – Form and Function is a book about the way these remedy plants grow and how they relate to human emotional states.

It has been a long time in the making, representing the summation of over twenty years’ work, study and practice. Taking the storyline of Dr Bach’s discoveries of the Bach flower remedies it is both a reappraisal and a strikingly original account of the relationship between plants and mankind. Bach spoke of the Grand Design which is behind the physical world of living things. A Grand Design and a Grand Designer. Here we see aspects of that design at work.

Barnard presents the thirty-eight Bach remedies in a straightforward manner so that anyone can make sense of them and appreciate their different qualities. His presentation uses the schema used by Bach himself in the unfolding story of their discovery. It is the system of 12:7:19, the Twelve Healers, the Seven Helpers and the Second Nineteen. The Twelve Healers are the twelve soul types, the type remedies; the particular nature with which we are born. The Seven Helpers are chronic conditions, emotional states which have developed over time, which have become habitual and may mask the true type. The Second Nineteen are reactive emotional and mental conditions which can occur as a response to life traumas. Such conditions may be long lasting and deep-acting but can be traced back to a particular event which triggered the reaction. An understanding of these three kinds of remedy is supported by understanding the difference between the two ways of preparing Bach remedies: the sun method and the boiling method.

Julian Barnard has lived and worked in Walterstone on the Welsh border for the past twenty years. Born in the Thames Valley in 1947, he was brought up with a love of plants and has family connections with the great botanists Henslow and Hooker. He went to school in Oxford and trained at the Architectural Association, London.

Finding a copy of The Twelve Healers led Barnard to contact Nickie Murray at the Bach Centre who encouraged his interest and enthusiasm. He trained in herbal medicine in Australia with Dorothy Hall. The author of a series of books about Dr Bach’s flower remedies, he has also edited and published Collected Writings of Edward Bach, the first complete edition of Bach’s texts.

In 1986 he was instrumental in setting up the Bach Educational Programme to bring flower remedies to a wider public. This led to the creation of Healingherbs, a company which is dedicated to the production of Bach’s remedies by the original and traditional methods. Still actively engaged in education he has given talks and workshops in more than a dozen countries: in Europe and both North and South America.