GodmotherBooks is the showcase and shop for the growing collection of books by Linda Locke, an accidental children’s book author after almost 40 years in advertising and marketing.
Linda’s journey as an author started upon a chance visit to the Singapore Botanic Gardens, where she discovered misinformation about the origins of Singapore’s National Flower, which records show was created by Agnes Joaquim — Linda’s great grandaunt. Linda successfully defended her great grandaunt’s legacy and in 2016 Agnes was officially recognised as the creator of the hybrid orchid Vanda Miss Joaquim (scientifically known as Papilionanthe Miss Joaquim).
Soon after, a friend suggested that Linda pen a children’s book to ensure that future generations of Singaporeans would learn the true story about Agnes. In 2018, Agnes and Her Amazing Orchid, co-authored with James Wolf, was published by Epigram Books as part of its Prominent Singaporeans series. It was shortlisted for the 2019 Singapore Book Awards: Best Picture Book.
Agnes and Her Amazing Orchid was followed by a 6 book series called Jack Is Curious, based on the challenging questions her young son used to ask her and her creative responses. The range of topics provokes thoughtful discussions between children and their parents. In 2022, she launched her first rhyming book, The Boy Who Talked All Day which was shortlisted for the Book Council Hedwig Anuar Children's Book Award, and she is not stopping. Linda published her first Middle grade book series in 2024, Lyna Lankylegs and the Bright Hill Gang.
Her Jack is Curious series is available in Vietnam and soon, Indonesia, while The Boy who Talked All Day is available in mandarin in Taiwan.
More About the Author
Linda Locke was previously chief executive and creative director of Saatchi & Saatchi Advertising, and chairman and regional creative director of Leo Burnett Advertising, and has more than 300 creative awards to her name. Linda later started her own consultancy, Godmother Pte Ltd, and held several key positions at Club21, a luxury fashion distributor. She now serves as a board director at Culina Pte Ltd. In March 2024, Linda was inducted into the Singapore Women’s Hall of Fame in recognition as a Trailblazer in the Creative Industry.
About the Collection
The Garden of Miss Joaquim Collection: Illustrated Botanical Prints
Agnes Joaquim was a Singapore-born Armenian who created what would become Singapore’s National Flower, the Vanda Miss Joaquim (scientific name: Papilionanthe Miss Joaquim), in 1893. The artificial hybrid was recognised by the first director of the Singapore Botanic Gardens, botanist Henry Ridley.
Agnes, the first woman in the world to create a hybrid orchid, was a well-known and successful horticulturist, garnering 70 horticultural awards from 1881 to 1899. The Garden of Miss Joaquim Collection of botanical prints commemorates her horticultural legacy and complements her story told in the book Agnes and Her Amazing Orchid.
In presenting Agnes’s award-winning plants in the illustrated collection, we looked at the newspaper records of the times, but they were of no use because they used common name descriptions of the plants, such as ‘rose’ and ‘durian’. So we turned to the Singapore Botanic Gardens and collaborated with a botanist to identify the likely species. To complete Agnes’s story, the collection includes two additional images: of Vanda Miss Joaquim’s parents, Papilionanthe teres (pod parent) and Papilionanthe hookeriana (pollen parent) — formerly in the genus Vanda — both of which may have been present in her award-winning floral bouquets or cut flowers. Waiwai Hove, a talented and respected botanical illustrator, was chosen to produce the prints.
*Disclaimer: Representative only based on subject and likely species.
About the Illustrator
Born in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Waiwai Hove developed a love for nature from a young age. Growing up surrounded by rich tropical flora and nurtured by her mother, a keen gardener, Waiwai has always held a special place for plants in her childhood memories. Sheholds a diploma in botanical illustration from the Society of Botanical Artists (UK), graduating in 2013 with a distinction and the highest marks in the history of the course.
She has since worked for the Singapore Botanic Gardens, where highlights includeillustrations for ‘30 Heritage Trees’ and more recently ‘15 Gingers’. Four of Waiwai’s ginger paintings were subsequently used for a series of stamps issued by Singapore Post in 2018. Since 2019, Waiwai has begun working on the cover illustrations of 14 volumes of The Flora of Singapore, to be published over the next few years. Her works are in numerous private collections and can be found in publications by the National Parks Board and in the Shirley Sherwood Collection in Kew Gardens, UK.