
A few years ago Lally Snow moved to a Dorset village with her husband and three small children, having spent over a decade as a war photographer, foreign correspondent and film-maker living in Kabul. She covered the conflict there, as well as other wars from Gaza to Eastern Ukraine, and Iraq. After the move, she decided to rent an allotment, and this is a heart-warming, wry and at times, tearful account of Lally's travails as a mother and novice allotment holder, counterpointing horticultural progress with the perils of parenting. Along the way she reflects on the drudgery of English rural domesticity after a professional life chasing war and adventure, the history of the allotment since Saxon times, and the wonderful moment when gardening becomes fun rather than just feeding a family.