The Allotment - David Crouch & Colin Ward

Allotments offer sactuaries for growing; often found on the fringes of towns and cities and glimpsed from train lines. The simple urge to grow your own or become self-sufficient brings with it a community of people, wildlife and plants and a sharing of expertise and knowledge.

I briefly jointly held an allotment in north London; on the neighbouring plots were a warring pair of Italian brothers who grew chickpeas, courgettes and tomatoes, a woman who let her plot run wild (much to the consternation of the allotment committee) and another woman who brought her cat to the site with her and spent most of her time sunbathing.

David Crouch and Colin Ward tell the story allotmenteering starting with The Diggers in seventeeth-century Surrey: a response to the Enclosure Acts. The book was originally published in 1988 and encompasses oral recordings of plotholders. It is a classic study of British society and history through the prism of allotments.

New introduction by Olivia Laing.

Paperback. 304 pages.

Measurements:

15.7cm x 21.5cm x 2.6cm

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