View from a Shed: Four Seasons as an Urban Farmer

by Michael Wale

View from a Shed is not a book about gardening. It is a book about people who garden. People like Mrs. Fuller, almost 100 years old, who remembers watching supervised Italian POWs during WW1, demolish the local manor house; General Safi who was the Protector of the King of Afghanistan but fled his native country after being imprisoned and tortured; and Michael Wale who has had an allotment since 1980 and has an obsession with compost. Allotments have always been a huge part of urban life and it is that history that informs Wale's narrative. As he takes the reader on a tour of the seasons in his allotment world, he engages with his fellow gardeners and tells their stories. The result is a warm and tender story of flowers and food; sheds and greenhouses; gardeners and local councils. This book is an ideal memoir for everyone in the big city who has dreamt about the country life.

Genres: Gardening

222 pages, Paperback

First published November 29, 2006

Reviews

[Donna · Rating 3 out of 5]

As has been said about this book, it is not about gardening as such, but a kind of biography about the characters on the author's allotment site and how they all interact with each other. You do pick up the odd tidbit of knowledge but blink and you would miss it! However the people who populate this West London allotment site are all individuals and there is an interesting mix. Being London there are 17 different nationalities with plots at the site, but don't worry you don't meet them all so it is not too confusing.
The book was easy to read and I got through it in a couple of days. However, it could have been laid out better. The book is basically divided into four chapters - Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. And that is it! There are no other breaks in the text except for paragraphs. So you'll be reading about one incident that happened and when you go onto the next paragraph the subject has completely changed abruptly. The use of line breaks would be useful at these points.
But an enjoyable read if you are looking for characters rather than a how-to veg gardening book.

[Martinxo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyable, a little daunting if you are an allotment beginner but...one spade at a time, as they say.