Unearthed

On race and roots, and how the soil taught me I belong

A beautiful work of nature-writing, memoir and storytelling that will change the way we think about the natural world, from food grower Claire Ratinon

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.

'A beautiful book about nature...I recommend it' — Afua Hirsch, author of Brit(ish)