Wulf was born in New Delhi, India, a child of German developmental aid workers, and spent the first five years of her life there, then grew up in Hamburg.

[1] She studied first at the University of Lüneburg, and then design history at The Royal College of Art, London.

Her book The Brother Gardeners was long-listed for the Samuel Johnson Prize[2] and received a CBHL Annual Literature Award in 2010.

The narrative style provides glimpses into the personalities of those involved, their aims and obsessions, their failures and discoveries, and provides the historic context of the period in the 18th century when modern-day scientifically accurate mapping and international scientific collaboration began.

Wulf makes the case that Humboldt synthesised knowledge from many different fields to form a vision of nature as one interconnected system, that would go on to influence scientists, activists and the public.