Allan Jenkins

'This is my manifesto for morning. There is an energy in the earlier hours, an awareness I enjoy. In today's world we tend to wake as late as we can, timed to when we have to work. But we don't need to chase the day'. In Morning, Allan Jenkins shows how getting up earlier even once a week or month can free us to be more imaginative, to maybe read, to walk, to write. He talks to other early risers such as Jamie Oliver and Samuel West, to poets and painters. We hear from a neuroscientist about sleep, a philosopher about dawn, a fisherman about light. Allan wakes early, he listens, he looks. He introduces us to a secret world. This is a celebration of dawn and morning: the best time of day.

Morning: How to Make Time

'This is my manifesto for morning. There is an energy in the earlier hours, an awareness I enjoy. In today's world we tend to wake as late as we can, timed to when we have to work. But we don't need to chase the day.' In Morning, Allan Jenkins shows how getting up earlier even once a week or month can free us to be more imaginative, to maybe read, to walk, to write. He talks to other early risers such as Jamie Oliver and Samuel West, to poets and painters. We hear from a neuroscientist about sleep, a philosopher about dawn, a fisherman about light. Allan wakes early, he listens, he looks. He introduces us to a secret world. This is a celebration of dawn and morning: the best time of day.

How to Make Time: a Manifesto

Morning

'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.

A Memoir

Plot 29

Tim Hughes

Howard Sooley

In the heart of London's Covent Garden, J Sheekey has been offering the finest fish, oysters, shellfish and other fruits de mer since the 1890s. Josef Sheekey was a market stall holder given permission by Lord Salisbury to serve fish and seafood in his 1896 property development in St Martin's Court, on the proviso that he supply meals to Salisbury's after-theatre dinner parties. Over a century later, the restaurant retains its late-Victorian charm and buzzes with fashionable folk and famous faces. The menu takes in prime fish such as Dover and lemon sole, brill and salmon, with seasonal specials such as Esk sea trout with lovage and girolles, roast lobster with sweetbreads and salt baked bass. Old favourites include lobster thermidor and Sheekey's famous fish pie. J Sheekey Fish immortalises recipes from this renowned kitchen. Sheekey Executive Chef Tim Hughes has teamed up with legendary cookery editor Allan Jenkins to create the cookery book event of 2012.

J Sheekey FISH

AUTOBIOGRAPHY: GENERAL. Plot 29 is on a London allotment site where people come together to grow. It's just that sometimes what Allan Jenkins grows there, along with marigolds and sorrel, is solace. 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. I nurture small plants from seeds, like when I was small and needed someone to care for me. I offer protection from danger, as I tried to for my brother. It's not all about healing, though it's there in abundance, like summer beans. Sometimes it's just the joy of growing food and flowers and sharing with people you love. A personal narrative blended with beautiful descriptions of gardening and the pleasures of losing yourself in the horticultural, Plot 29 weaves together memoir and memory, from the author's childhood to the present day.

Plot 29: a Memoir: LONGLISTED for the BAILLIE GIFFORD and WELLCOME BOOK PRIZE

‘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.’

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

Eine verwundete Seele. Im Garten wird sie wieder ganz. Allan Jenkins ist glücklich verheiratet und ein erfolgreicher Journalist. Fast täglich sucht er im Morgengrauen oder in der Abenddämmerung sein kleines Stück Land in einer Londoner Kleingartenkolonie auf, um sich dort über seine Pflanzen zu beugen. Er hegt und pflegt die grünen Schützlinge, freut sich über jede einzelne Blüte, jede einzelne Frucht. Die Pflanzen haben, was ihm selbst fehlt: Wurzeln. Sein Leben lang hat Allan darunter gelitten, seit die Mutter ihn verließ und eine Odyssee durch Heime und Pflegefamilien begann. Ausgerüstet mit viel Mut und einer Schaufel gräbt sich Allan durch seinen Garten und immer mehr in die eigene Vergangenheit, stellt sich den bitteren Enttäuschungen, denen er auf der Suche nach den Eltern ausgesetzt ist. Der Garten bietet dabei Raum und Halt. Sobald er die Erde zwischen seinen Händen spürt, lässt sich die Wahrheit, die nach und nach zutage tritt, ein bisschen leichter ertragen. Wo findet man Trost, wenn das Gefühl, nirgendwo hinzugehören, übermächtig wird? Was bedeutet es, sich als erwachsener Mann der großen Frage stellen zu müssen: Wer bin ich? Dies ist ein schonungsloses und berührendes Buch über ein Leben auf der Suche und gleichzeitig eine ungeheure Feier des Glücks, das der Mensch nur im Garten findet.

Ein Jahr im Garten auf der Suche nach mir selbst

Wurzeln schlagen

‘This is my manifesto for morning. There is an energy in the earlier hours, an awareness I enjoy. In today’s world we tend to wake as late as we can, timed to when we have to work. But we don’t need to chase the day.’

Allan Jenkins

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