Description

A powerful work of memoir and storytelling that will change the way we think about the natural world.

Like many diasporic people of colour, Claire Ratinon grew up feeling cut off from the natural world. She lived in cities, reluctant to be outdoors and stuck with the belief that success and status could fill the space where belonging was absent.

But a chance encounter with a rooftop farm was the start of a journey that caused her to rethink the life she’d been creating and her beliefs about who she ought to be. Enlivened, she turned her hand to growing food in London before finding herself yearning for a small parcel of land to call her own.

Unearthed tells the story of her leaving the city for the English countryside – and her first garden – in the hope of forging a pathway towards the embrace of the natural world and a sense of belonging cultivated on her own terms.

‘Ratinon’s story will change hearts and minds’ Alice Vincent

‘A beautiful book about nature…I recommend it’ Afua Hirsch, author of Brit(ish)

Publisher Review

A beautiful book about nature, and how reengaging with the foundational experience of our species of growing and cultivating crops can be a source of healing and spiritual truth... I recommend it -- Afua Hirsch It is rare for a book to come along that tells a story that has never been heard before. Unearthed is just that and more. Deeply felt, deeply told, deeply generous, Claire Ratinon's story of trying to find a place of belonging in a post-colonial landscape is one that will change hearts and minds. How vitally we have needed this narrative, how beautifully it has been told. -- Alice Vincent, author of Rootbound Exquisite * Nova Reid, Author of The Good Ally * Poignant and groundbreaking... we are tenderly offered a new possibility of deeper wonder, awe and profound hope as we unearth the truth that grows in all our gardens * The Garden * A beautiful work of nature-writing, memoir and storytelling. * Country & Town House *