Plot 29: A Memoir: LONGLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD AND WELLCOME BOOK PRIZE
Written by Allan Jenkins
Narrated by Allan Jenkins and Mike Grady
4/5
()
Unavailable in your country
Unavailable in your country
About this audiobook
‘When I am disturbed, even angry, gardening has been a therapy. When I don't want to talk I turn to Plot 29, or to a wilder piece of land by a northern sea. There, among seeds and trees, my breathing slows; my heart rate too. My anxieties slip away.’
As a young boy in 1960s Plymouth, Allan Jenkins and his brother, Christopher, were rescued from their care home and fostered by an elderly couple. There, the brothers started to grow flowers in their riverside cottage. They found a new life with their new mum and dad.
As Allan grew older, his foster parents were never quite able to provide the family he and his brother needed, but the solace he found in tending a small London allotment echoed the childhood moments when he grew nasturtiums from seed.
Over the course of a year, Allan digs deeper into his past, seeking to learn more about his absent parents. Examining the truths and untruths that he’d been told, he discovers the secrets to why the two boys were in care. What emerges is a vivid portrait of the violence and neglect that lay at the heart of his family.
A beautifully written, haunting memoir, Plot 29 is a mystery story and meditation on nature and nurture. It’s also a celebration of the joy to be found in sharing food and flowers with people you love.
Allan Jenkins
Allan Jenkins is the award-winning editor of Observer Food Monthly. He was previously editor of the Observer Magazine, food and drink editor on the Independent newspaper and once lived in an experimental eco-community on Anglesey, growing organic food on the edge of the Irish Sea. He is the co-author of Fish, the J. Sheekey cookbook, and lives in north-west London.
Related to Plot 29
Related audiobooks
Woodsman Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Backyard Parables: Lessons on Gardening, and Life Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Shearwater: A Bird, an Ocean, and a Long Way Home Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Fenland Garden: Creating a haven for people, plants and wildlife in the Lincolnshire Fens Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Observant Walker: Wild Food, Nature and Hidden Treasures on the Pathways of Britain Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWild Isles Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSocial Capital: Life online in the shadow of Ireland’s tech boom Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Garden Bird Year Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDaunderlust: Dispatches from Unreported Scotland Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCraic Baby Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Easternmost House Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Dun Cow Rib: A Very Natural Childhood Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTime and Tide Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsIconicon: A Journey Around the Landmark Buildings of Contemporary Britain Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEnglish: A Story of Marmite, Queuing and Weather Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Sloth Lemur’s Song: Madagascar from the Deep Past to the Uncertain Present Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Orchard: A Year in England’s Eden Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Life of Birds Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Beak, Tooth and Claw: Living with Predators in Britain Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Draw of the Sea Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Last Butterflies: A Scientist's Quest to Save a Rare and Vanishing Creature Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Our Daily Bread: From Argos to the Altar – a Priest's Story Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5All the Wide Border: Wales, England and the Places Between Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBlue Portugal and Other Essays Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsClubland: How the working men’s club shaped Britain Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Here Comes the Fun: A Year of Making Merry Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Wild Year: a story of homelessness, perseverance and hope Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Signs and Wonders: Dispatches from a time of beauty and loss Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings21st Century Yokel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Gran Tour: Travels with my Elders Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Personal Memoirs For You
Becoming Free Indeed: My Story of Disentangling Faith from Fear Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Counting the Cost Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Woman in Me Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing: A Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Glass Castle: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I'm Glad My Mom Died Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5On Writing: A Memoir Of The Craft Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Beyond Belief: My Secret Life Inside Scientology and My Harrowing Escape Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Roxane Gay & Everand Originals: Built for This: The Quiet Strength of Powerlifting Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Finding Me: A Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Roxane Gay & Everand Originals: My Year of Psychedelics: Lessons on Better Living Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How Y'all Doing?: Misadventures and Mischief from a Life Well Lived Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Enough Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sure, I'll Join Your Cult: A Memoir of Mental Illness and the Quest to Belong Anywhere Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Night: New translation by Marion Wiesel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5All My Knotted-Up Life: A Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Making It So: A Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5You Could Make This Place Beautiful: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Writing into the Wound: Understanding trauma, truth, and language Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Good Girls Don't Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Wishful Drinking Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Love, Lucy Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bad Mormon Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Summer of Fall: Gravity is a bitch, but I'm still standing Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Stolen Life: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5While Time Remains: A North Korean Girl's Search for Freedom in America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pageboy: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related categories
Reviews for Plot 29
9 ratings1 review
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Memoirs are tricky things, and in general I don’t read them. I requested this one because I work professionally with allotments and I wanted to see what Mr. Jenkins, a noted writer and editor for The Guardian newspaper, has to say.Mr. Jenkins juxtaposes the chaos and pain of his childhood, in which he and his brother were abandoned into the UK foster care system, with the stability of participating in a stable allotment garden community. The benefits of gardening as a formal and structured adjunct therapy for various mental health conditions are well studied but perhaps are not well known to the general public. You might want to take a look at the literature. But the joy and peace that gardening brings has been documented since the mediaeval monks and so we should be pleased but not surprised that Mr. Jenkins' ties to the land throughout his adult life have brought him much pleasure and companionship.I received a review copy of "Plot 29: A Love Affair With Land" by Allan Jenkins (HarperCollins UK, 4th Estate) through NetGalley.com.