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    Unavailable
    Plot 29: A Memoir: LONGLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD AND WELLCOME BOOK PRIZE
    Unavailable
    Plot 29: A Memoir: LONGLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD AND WELLCOME BOOK PRIZE
    Unavailable
    Plot 29: A Memoir: LONGLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD AND WELLCOME BOOK PRIZE
    Audiobook7 hours

    Plot 29: A Memoir: LONGLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD AND WELLCOME BOOK PRIZE

    Written by Allan Jenkins

    Narrated by Allan Jenkins and Mike Grady

    4/5

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    Unavailable in your country

    Unavailable in your country

    About this audiobook

    ‘When I am disturbed, even angry, gardening has been a therapy. When I don't want to talk I turn to Plot 29, or to a wilder piece of land by a northern sea. There, among seeds and trees, my breathing slows; my heart rate too. My anxieties slip away.’

    As a young boy in 1960s Plymouth, Allan Jenkins and his brother, Christopher, were rescued from their care home and fostered by an elderly couple. There, the brothers started to grow flowers in their riverside cottage. They found a new life with their new mum and dad.

    As Allan grew older, his foster parents were never quite able to provide the family he and his brother needed, but the solace he found in tending a small London allotment echoed the childhood moments when he grew nasturtiums from seed.

    Over the course of a year, Allan digs deeper into his past, seeking to learn more about his absent parents. Examining the truths and untruths that he’d been told, he discovers the secrets to why the two boys were in care. What emerges is a vivid portrait of the violence and neglect that lay at the heart of his family.

    A beautifully written, haunting memoir, Plot 29 is a mystery story and meditation on nature and nurture. It’s also a celebration of the joy to be found in sharing food and flowers with people you love.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins Publishers
    Release dateMar 23, 2017
    ISBN9780008121976
    Unavailable
    Plot 29: A Memoir: LONGLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD AND WELLCOME BOOK PRIZE
    Author

    Allan Jenkins

    Allan Jenkins is the award-winning editor of Observer Food Monthly. He was previously editor of the Observer Magazine, food and drink editor on the Independent newspaper and once lived in an experimental eco-community on Anglesey, growing organic food on the edge of the Irish Sea. He is the co-author of Fish, the J. Sheekey cookbook, and lives in north-west London.

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    • 3/5
      Memoirs are tricky things, and in general I don’t read them. I requested this one because I work professionally with allotments and I wanted to see what Mr. Jenkins, a noted writer and editor for The Guardian newspaper, has to say.Mr. Jenkins juxtaposes the chaos and pain of his childhood, in which he and his brother were abandoned into the UK foster care system, with the stability of participating in a stable allotment garden community. The benefits of gardening as a formal and structured adjunct therapy for various mental health conditions are well studied but perhaps are not well known to the general public. You might want to take a look at the literature. But the joy and peace that gardening brings has been documented since the mediaeval monks and so we should be pleased but not surprised that Mr. Jenkins' ties to the land throughout his adult life have brought him much pleasure and companionship.I received a review copy of "Plot 29: A Love Affair With Land" by Allan Jenkins (HarperCollins UK, 4th Estate) through NetGalley.com.