Victor Osborne

Borrowed from Gill

I really enjoyed this gentle year in the life of an allotment gardener and the people around him. The other characters are brought to life vividly and with an excellent bitter-sweetness, and we join with Victor in willing on his fruit and vegetables, agonising over a wasp problem, worrying about vandals and preparing for the big event of the year - the show and competition.

The only thing that spoiled this for me was the really clunky language - someone must have told him not to use shortenings, so it's all "I decided I would do this..." "I will look at pruning" and it just started to grate after a while - the subject matter was quite personal and casual so why not let some I'd and I'll in there?… (more)

Along with the recent increase in popularity of allotments, and growing your own food, there's been a parallel growth of the 'My year on the plot' style books. Most of these I find too wide-eyed and twee for my taste, with overblown descriptions of how spiritually uplifting an experience an allotment is and the mandatory over-description of the 'characters' on the site.
This book mostly manages to avoid these excesses, and except on occasion is actually written is a rather refreshing, almost plain style. Anyone who has had an allotment will recognise the tension of site disputes, the sickening heartbreak of having to deal with vandalism and the helplessness of being confronted with glut of produce. There's the odd recipe/advice included (haven't tested any myself!) which does reinforce the credentials of the author; although I wonder if he ever managed to plant his vineyard.
Definately one of the better ones of this genre, and the chapters are just long enough to make it a worthwhile pick-up and put-down again sort of book.… (more)