On The Roof: A Thatcher's Journey

by Tom Allan

'An excellent, beautifully written book' Patrick Galbraith, Sunday Times

'A rich and hugely enjoyable celebration of the local, the vernacular and traditional ... a beautifully written craftsman's memoir' Daily Mail

Thatched roofs are like living each one a web of repair, replacement and alteration, shaped, dressed and re-moulded by every pair of hands that works on it.

Thatching is one of the world's oldest crafts - an ancient trade that roots us in nature, as Tom Allen discovered when he quit an office job to become an apprentice in Devon. Now a master of the trade, in On the Roof he goes in search of its history and future, meeting fellow thatchers, from the son of a lobster fisherman who thatches with a dune grass in the Hebrides, to a Syrian refugee who found peace among the seagrass roofs of Denmark, to one of the first women to master Japan's 5,000-year-old thatching tradition.

Eye-opening, beautifully told and revealing a tradition hand-shaped over centuries, On the Roof is a story of how we live with the land and how we have chosen to treat it.

Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir

304 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 29, 2024

Reviews

[Kate M]

I loved this book ! In another life I am a roof thatcher in the outer Hebrides lol !!!!!! Cool to understand more about the tradition and what it’s like today around the world. What a craft and a way of living !!!!!

[Caroline Hulse]

I read this book as it was our book group suggestion for the month. Not something I would have normally picked up but I really enjoyed the journey that Tom went on, with the most interesting chapters being on Romania and Japan. Sometimes it was hard to precisely visualise what he was describing but generally it was a well written interesting read.

[Sophie (RedheadReading)]

Fascinating! Really interesting to see the different thatching cultures across the world and how they all wrestle with the idea of tradition verses progress, sustainability, community, etc etc.