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Digging for Victory: Gardens and Gardening in Wartime Britain
Beans as bullets', 'Vegetables for Victory' and 'Cloches against Hitler': these slogans convey just how vital gardening and growing food were to the British war effort during the Second World War. Exhorted to 'Grow More Food', then to 'Dig for Victory', Britain's 'allotment army' was soon out in force, growing as many vegetables as possible in suburban allotments, private gardens, even the grounds of stately homes. Richly illustrated with contemporary photographs and ephemera relating to the 'Dig For Victory' campaign, this expertly researched, highly engaging and informative account also includes archive images of home front gardening, garden produce and advertisements.
216 pages, Hardcover
First published November 28, 2010
2 people are currently reading
31 people want to read
About the author
Mike Brown
232 books67 followersNOTE: There is more than one author with this name on Goodreads.
Youth and education
Brown is a Huntsville, Alabama native and graduated from Virgil I. Grissom High School in 1983. Brown earned his A.B. in physics from Princeton University in 1987, where he was a member of the Princeton Tower Club. He did his graduate studies at the University of California, Berkeley where he earned an M.Sc. in astronomy in 1990 and a Ph.D. in astronomy in 1994.
Discoveries
Brown is well-known in the scientific community for his surveys for distant objects orbiting the Sun. His team has discovered many trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs). Particularly notable are Eris, the only TNO discovered that is more massive than Pluto,[2] and is one of a number of dwarf planets in the Solar System; 90377 Sedna, a planetoid thought to be the first observed body belonging to the inner Öpik-Oort cloud; and 90482 Orcus.
Brown's team famously named Eris and its moon Dysnomia with the informal names Xena and Gabrielle, respectively, after the two main characters of Xena: Warrior Princess.
Haumea controversy
Brown and his team also had been observing the dwarf planet Haumea for approximately six months before its announced discovery by José Luis Ortiz Moreno and colleagues from the Sierra Nevada Observatory in Spain. Brown originally indicated his support for Ortiz's team being given credit for the discovery of Haumea. However, further investigation showed that a website containing archives of where Brown's team's telescopes had been pointed while tracking Haumea had been accessed eight times in the three days preceding Ortiz's announcement, by computers with IP addresses that were traced back to the website of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (CSIC, Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia), where Ortiz works, and to e-mail messages sent by Ortiz and his student. These website accesses came a week after Brown had published an abstract for an upcoming conference talk at which he had planned to announce the discovery of Haumea; the abstract referred to Haumea by a code that was the same code used in the online telescope logs; and the Andalusia computers had accessed the logs containing that code directly, as would be the case after an Internet search, without going through the home page or other pages of the archives.[5] When asked about this online activity, Ortiz responded with an email to Brown that suggested Brown was at fault for "hiding objects," and said that "the only reason why we are now exchanging e-mail is because you did not report your object."[6] Brown says that this statement by Ortiz contradicts the accepted scientific practice of analyzing one's research until one is satisfied that it is accurate, then submitting it to peer review prior to any public announcement. However, the MPC only needs precise enough orbit determination on the object in order to provide discovery credit, and Ortiz et al. not only provided the orbit, but "precovery" images of the body in 1957 plates.
The then director of the IAA, José Carlos del Toro, distanced himself from Ortiz, insisting that its researchers have "sole responsibility" for themselves. Brown petitioned the International Astronomical Union to credit his team rather than Ortiz as the discoverers of Haumea. However, no evidence of impropriety was found, and Ortiz et al. were given sole credit for the discovery. Nonetheless, the IAU did accept Brown's suggested name of Haumea, which fit the names of Haumea's two moons, rather than Ortiz's Ataecina.
Honors, awards and accolades
Brown was named one of Time's 100 Influential People of 2006.[7] In 2007 he received Caltech's annual Feynman Prize, Caltech's most prestigious teaching honor. Asteroid 11714 Mikebrown, discovered on 28 April 1998, was named in his honor.
Youth and education
Brown is a Huntsville, Alabama native and graduated from Virgil I. Grissom High School in 1983. Brown earned his A.B. in physics from Princeton University in 1987, where he was a member of the Princeton Tower Club. He did his graduate studies at the University of California, Berkeley where he earned an M.Sc. in astronomy in 1990 and a Ph.D. in astronomy in 1994.
Discoveries
Brown is well-known in the scientific community for his surveys for distant objects orbiting the Sun. His team has discovered many trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs). Particularly notable are Eris, the only TNO discovered that is more massive than Pluto,[2] and is one of a number of dwarf planets in the Solar System; 90377 Sedna, a planetoid thought to be the first observed body belonging to the inner Öpik-Oort cloud; and 90482 Orcus.
Brown's team famously named Eris and its moon Dysnomia with the informal names Xena and Gabrielle, respectively, after the two main characters of Xena: Warrior Princess.
Haumea controversy
Brown and his team also had been observing the dwarf planet Haumea for approximately six months before its announced discovery by José Luis Ortiz Moreno and colleagues from the Sierra Nevada Observatory in Spain. Brown originally indicated his support for Ortiz's team being given credit for the discovery of Haumea. However, further investigation showed that a website containing archives of where Brown's team's telescopes had been pointed while tracking Haumea had been accessed eight times in the three days preceding Ortiz's announcement, by computers with IP addresses that were traced back to the website of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (CSIC, Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia), where Ortiz works, and to e-mail messages sent by Ortiz and his student. These website accesses came a week after Brown had published an abstract for an upcoming conference talk at which he had planned to announce the discovery of Haumea; the abstract referred to Haumea by a code that was the same code used in the online telescope logs; and the Andalusia computers had accessed the logs containing that code directly, as would be the case after an Internet search, without going through the home page or other pages of the archives.[5] When asked about this online activity, Ortiz responded with an email to Brown that suggested Brown was at fault for "hiding objects," and said that "the only reason why we are now exchanging e-mail is because you did not report your object."[6] Brown says that this statement by Ortiz contradicts the accepted scientific practice of analyzing one's research until one is satisfied that it is accurate, then submitting it to peer review prior to any public announcement. However, the MPC only needs precise enough orbit determination on the object in order to provide discovery credit, and Ortiz et al. not only provided the orbit, but "precovery" images of the body in 1957 plates.
The then director of the IAA, José Carlos del Toro, distanced himself from Ortiz, insisting that its researchers have "sole responsibility" for themselves. Brown petitioned the International Astronomical Union to credit his team rather than Ortiz as the discoverers of Haumea. However, no evidence of impropriety was found, and Ortiz et al. were given sole credit for the discovery. Nonetheless, the IAU did accept Brown's suggested name of Haumea, which fit the names of Haumea's two moons, rather than Ortiz's Ataecina.
Honors, awards and accolades
Brown was named one of Time's 100 Influential People of 2006.[7] In 2007 he received Caltech's annual Feynman Prize, Caltech's most prestigious teaching honor. Asteroid 11714 Mikebrown, discovered on 28 April 1998, was named in his honor.
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
July 29, 2011
Garden writing today still offers much the same advice as it did during the war year - this is quite obvious if you read through 'Digging for Victory', which is a very comprehensive look at home vegetable production through the Second World War period and contains images of much of the literature produced at the time.
I have a soft spot for the Home Front period, and so I very much enjoyed looking through this book, with its many images of life back then. Unlike some books, however, this one doesn't toe the patriotic line and is happy to admit that people weren't always happy to 'dig for victory' and that some of the propaganda campaigns fell flat.
Even though I have read several books on this topic, this one still had new information that I hadn't come across before. It goes beyond 'Mr Middleton' to mention other garden writers - I learned about Eleanour Sinclair Rohde, who had an interest in herbs and wrote 'Uncommon Vegetables, how to grow and how to cook'.
It sounds as though most of the garden writing of the time was aimed (as it is now) as amateurs and making life easy for time-strapped gardeners. It would also have had to advocate thrift and make do and mend, as many gardening sundries and products would have been in short supply.
Gardening advice crept into every walk of life, with vicars being given horticultural notes to work into their sermons, and gardeners being encouraged by pesticide advice dispensed at Boots the Chemist. Apparently 10 tons of pigeon manure were scraped from a church in Kensington and given to local allotment holders to use as fertilizer, which was otherwise in short supply.
There's an insight into the history of the compost heap and a rather disturbing chapter on pests and diseases. The gardening press acknowledged the existence of 'patriotic' beneficial insects, but pests were 'Hitler's Allies' and blitzed out of existence with chemicals that are no longer available for amateur use.
The book contains a chapter on livestock, covering hens, rabbits, pigs and goats - with some interesting snippets on what they were all fed on. Many gardeners were as squeamish then as they are now about killing their animals, and it's hard to imagine the effects of untrained people killing larger animals.
This is a lovely hardback book, packed with information and lovely pictures. If you enjoy reading about the Home Front and the Digging for Victory campaign, or the history of gardening, then it would make a great addition to your library. There's a lovely touch right at the back, as the second page of the index is printed on the inside of the back cover. Saving paper - how very appropriate!
I have a soft spot for the Home Front period, and so I very much enjoyed looking through this book, with its many images of life back then. Unlike some books, however, this one doesn't toe the patriotic line and is happy to admit that people weren't always happy to 'dig for victory' and that some of the propaganda campaigns fell flat.
Even though I have read several books on this topic, this one still had new information that I hadn't come across before. It goes beyond 'Mr Middleton' to mention other garden writers - I learned about Eleanour Sinclair Rohde, who had an interest in herbs and wrote 'Uncommon Vegetables, how to grow and how to cook'.
It sounds as though most of the garden writing of the time was aimed (as it is now) as amateurs and making life easy for time-strapped gardeners. It would also have had to advocate thrift and make do and mend, as many gardening sundries and products would have been in short supply.
Gardening advice crept into every walk of life, with vicars being given horticultural notes to work into their sermons, and gardeners being encouraged by pesticide advice dispensed at Boots the Chemist. Apparently 10 tons of pigeon manure were scraped from a church in Kensington and given to local allotment holders to use as fertilizer, which was otherwise in short supply.
There's an insight into the history of the compost heap and a rather disturbing chapter on pests and diseases. The gardening press acknowledged the existence of 'patriotic' beneficial insects, but pests were 'Hitler's Allies' and blitzed out of existence with chemicals that are no longer available for amateur use.
The book contains a chapter on livestock, covering hens, rabbits, pigs and goats - with some interesting snippets on what they were all fed on. Many gardeners were as squeamish then as they are now about killing their animals, and it's hard to imagine the effects of untrained people killing larger animals.
This is a lovely hardback book, packed with information and lovely pictures. If you enjoy reading about the Home Front and the Digging for Victory campaign, or the history of gardening, then it would make a great addition to your library. There's a lovely touch right at the back, as the second page of the index is printed on the inside of the back cover. Saving paper - how very appropriate!
November 8, 2022
A very readable narrative with good structure, but no formal bibliography or works cited.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews