Description

‘An excellent, beautifully written book’ Patrick Galbraith, Sunday Times

‘A rich and hugely enjoyable celebration of the local, the vernacular and traditional … a beautifully written craftsman’s memoir’ Daily Mail

‘What a marvellous book. Full of lore, information, interest, beautifully captured people. Poetry’ Craig Raine

Thatched roofs are like living organisms: each one a web of repair, replacement and alteration, shaped, dressed and re-moulded by every pair of hands that works on it.

Thatching is one of the world’s oldest crafts – an ancient trade that roots us in nature, as Tom Allan discovered when he quit an office job to become an apprentice in Devon. Now a master of the trade, in On the Roof he goes in search of its history and future, meeting fellow thatchers, from the son of a lobster fisherman who thatches with a dune grass in the Hebrides, to a Syrian refugee who found peace among the seagrass roofs of Denmark, to one of the first women to master Japan’s 5,000-year-old thatching tradition.

Eye-opening, beautifully told and revealing a tradition hand-shaped over centuries, On the Roof is a story of how we live with the land and how we have chosen to treat it.

Publisher Review

The fascinating story of how craft, community and nature combine to keep the roofs over our heads — Kate Humble, author and broadcaster Tom Allan writes easily and appealingly, making his Thatcher’s Journey one of discovery and delight. The gently described practicalities of the craft had me entranced — John Wright, author * The Forager’s Calendar * Hugely enjoyable – Tom Allan is a real craftsman, knowledgeable, curious and a superb storyteller — Jasper Winn, author * Waterways * A beautifully-crafted, highly-original, spirit-lifting, hands-on adventure — Nicholas Crane, author * The Making of the British Landscape *