Container, Small Space, & Urban Gardening, Gardening Essays

A View from a Shed

Name: A View from a Shed
Author: Michael Wale
ISBN: 9780749082246

by Michael Wale

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Overview

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.

Synopsis

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.

About the Author, Michael Wale

Michael Wale was a familiar figure on London and South East television as a sports presenter on the nightly BBC regional programs for many years. Trained as a journalist he then returned to full time writing, contributing to many publications including the Financial Times magazine, Farm Life and Business Management Today, and The Times. He has a seventeen-year-old daughter, is married and lives in London, a ten-minute walk from his allotment.