My Family and Other Seedlings: A Year on a Dorset Allotment

’A tender but substantive family memoir’ Sunday Independent

A few years ago Lally Snow moved to a Dorset village with her husband and three small children, having spent over a decade as a war photographer, foreign correspondent and film maker living in Kabul. She covered the conflict there as well as other wars from Gaza to Eastern Ukraine, and Iraq.

In the late winter of 2021-22, Lally decided to rent an allotment, despite having only a rudimentary knowledge of gardening. She was starting from scratch and setting herself the dual challenge of growing an allotment at the same time as growing a family.

This is a heart-warming, wry and at times tearful account of Lally’s travails as a mother and novice allotment holder, counterpointing horticultural progress with the perils of parenting. Along the way she reflects on the drudgery of English rural domesticity after a professional life chasing war and adventure, the history of the allotment since Saxon times, and the wonderful moment when gardening becomes fun rather than just feeding a family.

Award winning photographer, filmmaker and writer Lalage Snow has covered conflict and unrest since 2007 after finishing a Masters degree with Distinction in photojournalism at London College of Communication. Her personal projects have been published and exhibited to critical acclaim around the world and have been featured on the Channel 4, BBC, CNN and Al Jazeera. She has also given a number of public talks at literary festivals, museums and academic institutions including MIT. A series of short films made in Afghanistan are currently on display at the Smithsonian, the worlds largest museum complex.