Plots

Those keeping abreast of booky witterings on the GM blog will have read about
Barney Bardsley’s & Valentine Low's books.

They are both books about allotments. That's not so say that you would learn much from them. They are not "how to" type allotment book such as Jane Perrone's or say Andy Clevely’s, but rather "allotment tales ".

Earlier this year I read Elspeth Thompson’s Urban Gardener from 1999, which is a collection of her Telegraph columns, in which her allotment features most heavily and are probably overall the best bits. And last year I read Robin Shelton‘s Allotted Time, a book about an allotment (and Stella Artios), subtitled “Twelve Months, Two Blokes, One Shed, No Idea.”

I hadn’t really noticed that there were so many, but there are others- which certainly makes “allotment tales” a sub-genre of garden books.

Others that I have not read include:

My Life on a Hillside Allotment - Terry Walton
One Man and His Plot - Michael Leapman. This is quite an old book from 1976
Digger's Diary: Tales from the Allotment - Victor Osborne
View from a Shed - Michael Wale
Close to the Veg: A Book of Allotment Tales - Michael Rand