Plot 29: A Memoir: LONGLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD AND WELLCOME BOOK PRIZE

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Plot 29: A Memoir: LONGLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD AND WELLCOME BOOK PRIZE
Allan Jenkins

‘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.

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Copyright (#ua04c3f7a-18ec-5f67-a576-61d3400920b9)

4th Estate

An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

www.4thEstate.co.uk (http://www.4thEstate.co.uk)

First published in Great Britain by 4th Estate in 2017

Copyright © Allan Jenkins 2017

Except Foreword copyright © Nigel Slater 2017

Allan Jenkins asserts the right to be identified as the author of this work

This book is based on the author’s experiences. Some names, identifying characteristics, dialogue and details have been changed, reconstructed or fictionalised.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

Source ISBN: 9780008121952

Ebook Edition © March 2017 ISBN: 9780008121983

Version: 2018-03-09

Dedication (#ua04c3f7a-18ec-5f67-a576-61d3400920b9)

For Christopher

Contents

Cover (#uc3a79142-4ec7-5c9c-b492-90265c3a265d)

Title Page (#udd3a85cb-3f85-5b9e-9933-0178f8e654bb)

Copyright (#ubf659a7d-4f42-53c5-81f0-5741482ae759)

Dedication (#ua3e851c6-141c-5bc9-a0aa-f02d604bdee0)

Foreword (#u810b25f3-0e04-5d9c-805b-2011faa381b7)

Nature (#u4462dc3d-3176-518d-9a50-5fca60233e99)

Cast list (#uc59d855d-04da-53cb-9e8c-bed4a53c74bf)

June (#ufa5c6276-9b66-5e70-b076-1fed42f23951)

July (#uc018216d-5a46-5bbd-ae73-6d87ccb54e9c)

August (#u66ebc727-74c5-53a8-99be-161567270140)

September (#u445bfd93-6345-5bce-b071-79db325f2eca)

October (#uba87953d-ff6e-5126-a266-8563b7925809)

November (#u5635e7f6-4508-5c21-ab38-55683b5d695a)

December (#u74a4a3b4-e18b-51e9-beb6-db47baa00bb5)

January (#ud0c7e7b0-7f8f-521c-ab86-e28da6bfcfa0)

February (#u1d656928-ca2c-5a55-afa0-afb0f971baa4)

March (#u1f054e02-b5e1-5112-88ce-8fd8373f7a0c)

April (#u46ddf8e1-e06b-5683-9560-e110d5115b03)

May (#uba879749-b99f-54a1-97b1-ad06b003dbd1)

June (#u08272943-7e40-5d56-ad9b-961ea6a7573c)

July (#u2bbdcc86-1f40-5d44-a056-1e7d11838a61)

August (#u0d769804-a5fb-5b5b-bc72-bf29a29b0b43)

September (#u76f50c78-8ebb-5718-bd05-8b3694cf7eae)

December (#uee208094-7d20-59da-bc95-d025ab68c5b3)

Postscript (#u1ed5f51f-c11a-5a78-b3e9-7d3ee22c6d3a)

Acknowledgements (#uc9a15b16-27a0-5547-be62-6914a19619ab)

Photographs (#u86107d1f-b0ad-52bd-9413-703addf8bcf3)

Permissions (#ueb73b309-6c13-54cd-bc7b-545bb04f2ff8)

About the Publisher (#ud851d43f-f555-52dd-a514-aec51f7e6a3e)

Foreword (#ua04c3f7a-18ec-5f67-a576-61d3400920b9)

There are two sorts of gardeners, those who inherit a plot of land and cover it with a lawn, a neatly manicured patch of grass to trim and mow in straight lines for all to admire. Others use their space to grow, nurture and share. They dig deep, they replenish the soil, plant seed and watch it grow. They protect and nurture what lives there, and then they share the bounty.

You can go about writing a memoir in two ways too. You can pen a story that plasters over the cracks, telling tales of heroism and success. Or you can break ground, dig deeper, bravely unearthing an altogether richer story. One that takes its author and its readers down a track that is by turns surprising, tender and, occasionally, unsettling.

I have never read anything quite like Plot 29. Yes, it’s the gentle, heart-warming tale of the rescue and repair of an abandoned allotment, of protection offered to the soil by someone who understands the joys and pitfalls of growing. But contained in these pages is also an extraordinary memoir, brave, exquisitely written and utterly compelling.

Nigel Slater, 2017

Nature (#ua04c3f7a-18ec-5f67-a576-61d3400920b9)

When I am disturbed, even angry, gardening is 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.

It’s not always like that. Sometimes I just want to grow potatoes surrounded by flowers, like I did aged five with my brother one magical summer with our new mum and dad.

Plot 29 is on a London allotment site where people come together to grow. It’s just that sometimes what I am growing along with marigolds and sorrel is solace. I nurture small plants from seed like when I was small and needed someone to care for me. I offer protection from predators like when I tried to guard Christopher.

This then is my journal and childhood memoir, though my memories are fractured like my family. So I immerse myself in the plot, in nature and nurture. I lose myself in rapture. I grow fresh peas for my peace of mind.

It’s not all about healing, of course, though it’s there in abundance like beans. Sometimes it is the simple joy of growing food and flowers and sharing with people you love.

Cast list (#ua04c3f7a-18ec-5f67-a576-61d3400920b9)

Allotment family

Mary, Howard, Annie, Bill, Jeffrey, John, Ruth

Family

Henriette: wife

Christopher, Lesley, Caron, Susan, Michael, Mandy, Adeboye, Tina: brothers and sisters

Lilian and Dudley: mum and dad

Sheila: mother

Ray: father

Billy and Doris: grandparents

Terry, Tony, Colin, Mike, Joyce: uncles and aunt

Allan, Alan, Peter: me