Monty Don’s own experience of recovering from depression and maintaining his sanity through gardening led him to set up an unusual project. In 2005 he began working with a group of disaffected young people who had never had the opportunity to work with the land, never been aware of the seasons and never eaten proper food—let alone grown it or shared it with others. Would this experience do more to make them good citizens than the might and weight of the penal system? Looking after angry, disturbed people who resent you and almost everything else in their world proved much harder. Monty Don’s extraordinarily powerful book is not only a moving and dramatic account of the work of the project but also a passionate plea for us to recognise some painful truths about modern rural life.
