There is a genuine need for an intelligent, easy-to-use and well laid-out book that will provide expert, unpatronising information for both existing enthusiasts and especially for the growing number of people who have recently discovered an interest in gardens.

stunning photographs of gardens in all their glory are interspersed with copious and riveting information about their history, cultural and social significance...in irresistible short chapters, the authors regale us with intriguing horticultural facts

A well-illustrated, informative and entertaining guide....a superb dip-into introduction to the fascinating world of garden history

This compact, well researched and beautifully illustrated book is jammed full of fascinating garden lore, culinary history and clever recipes using flowers, leaves and seeds from plants you probably didn’t even know were edible. It’s a beautiful book – and I now know how to use of those dogwood flowers come spring…

Plenty of Walton's colourful stories alongside solid advice borne out of his 50 years on the plot.

This super little book... for all keen gardeners, especially allotmenteers, who will appreciate the tales but also get some useful tips.

A brilliant guide to organic vegetable growing and allotment life in general, from a gardener who has been working on his allotment for more than fifty years. ... With technical help, quick tips, reassurance and plenty of entertainment along the way.

Browsing this book is like leaning comfortably on a spade and pleasurably absorbing Terry Walton’s wisdom of prepping the plot and filling the veggie box in all seasons.

The Allotment Almanac distils all the hard-earned knowledge, anecdotes and charm that have won Terry so many fans. The result is the perfect companion, combining technical help and reassurance in a month-by-month calendar of life on his now famous plot in the Rhondda Valley.

Packed with gardening wisdom from a lifelong gardener... It made me want to get gardening again

Gardeners of any level of experience will find it charming and dippable

Fascinating . . . [Buchan’s] narrative, together with a collection of well-researched first-hand accounts, takes us on a journey that starts with 1930s Britain (where gardens and allotments had little significance in everyday life), through the war years that encouraged every citizen to grow their own and provide for their families. It ends with what happened in the desperate post-war years that saw potatoes and bread being rationed. An absorbing read.

Buchan has done a lot of work to show how gardening became a war time survival tool . . . Powerful

In this unpretentious account of Britain's wartime gardeners, Ursula Buchan gently celebrates the dogged determination of characters such as... middle-class ladies who taught the rudiments of gardening in draughty village halls; park superintendents and professional gardeners employed by country house estates, who transformed rose gardens into fields of maize and herbaceous borders into cabbage patches; ...horticulturalists who improved compost and researched the most productive vegetable strains; hard-pressed nurserymen who gave up selling more profitable ornamental plants for vegetables; and professional gardeners, who watched the young men they had trained go off to war.