View from a Shed

'View from a Shed' is not a book about gardening. It is a book about people who garden. People like Mrs Fuller, almost 100 years old, who remembers watching supervised Italian POWs during WW1, demolish the local manor house; General Safi who was the Protector of the King of Afghanistan but fled his native country after being imprisoned and tortured; and Michael Wale who has had an allotment since 1980 and has an obsession with compost. Allotments have always been a huge part of urban life and it is that history that informs Wale's narrative. As he takes the reader on a tour of the seasons in his allotment world, he engages with his fellow gardeners and tells their stories. The result is a warm and tender story of flowers and food; sheds and greenhouses; gardeners and local councils. For everyone in the big city who has dreamt about the country life.