The Allotment Diaries

Coming August 2026

One year in the soil. One last goodbye.

February produces an abundance of leeks; May inspires thoughts of blackberry ketchup. June’s glut of courgettes demands endless recipes; August’s blight strikes the tomatoes. October sees beans soaking in home-made broth, red wine and barley. December’s branches ‘die back’, yet life still stirs under the soil.

The Allotment Diaries follows the year I joined my father on the allotment. It is a year of growing and pickling, musing on wildness and cultivation, documenting his family’s odd yearly rituals, and unknowingly saying a last goodbye. Above all, it is a melodious, nourishing month-by-month portrait of the earth we all have in common.

You can pre-order it via your local bookshop (better) or all of the usual channels linked here.

My father was a keen fan of both folk music and of taping things off the radio, so I’ve also put together a mixtape of songs which were important to him or which are mentioned in the book or which I listened to while writing it (or all three) which you can listen to here.

I’ll hopefully be doing a tour of gardens and allotments and bookshops and pickling cellars to launch the book – follow my IG or my Substack for updates.