The Ballast Seed

A Story of Motherhood, of Growing up and Growing Plants

The Ballast Seed
Rosie Kinchen
RRP:
NZ$ 60.00
Our Price:
NZ$ 48.00
Hardback
h222 x 138mm - 208pg
9 Jun 2022 UK
International import eta 7-19 days
9781474618175
Out Of Stock
Currently no stock in-store, stock is sourced to your order
' I loved The Ballast Seed. I couldn' t put it down. Beautiful and sad and hopeful all at once - luminous and lush, full of dirt, darkness, sun light and soft new growth. It' s a story of vulnerability, persistence and the will to live. This is a memoir that will make you weep, then roll up your sleeves and plant the seeds of a new life. ' Cal Flyn author of Islands of AbandonmentThe surprise of a second pregnancy, so soon after the birth of her first son, plunged Rosie into a despair that spiralled into deep depression. Terrified at the prospect of adding another child into her already precariously balanced life, Rosie was compelled to find a new way of living. She found herself instinctively drawn to the local parks and scraps of communal green spaces in her local south east London neighbourhood, and to therapy via tending a hidden garden deep within the city. Interlaced with her responses to the travel journals of an eccentric 19th century female botanist and adventurer, Rosie elegantly describes how these pockets of nature amidst the urban sprawl provided just enough to mend her broken spirit.
Completely brilliant * India Knight * A gorgeously subtle memoir of depression, that intertwines in surprising and often uplifting ways with the healing power of nature. * Monica Ali * I loved The Ballast Seed. I couldn' t put it down. Beautiful and sad and hopeful all at once-luminous and lush, full of dirt, darkness, sun light and soft new growth. It' s a story of vulnerability, persistence and the will to live. This is a memoir that will make you weep, then roll up your sleeves and plant the seeds of a new life. * Cal Flyn author of Islands of Abandonment * The Ballast Seed brought me to tears, of sadness and of wonder. Rich in the possibilities of connection and of nature, Rosie Kinchen has created a book that is so many things at once, and utterly unique. It is an exquisite piece of writing that is unsentimental and raw and deeply moving, and a stunning antidote to some of the unhelpful myths propagated around new motherhood; in this sense I was underlining sentences as I read. . . a raw and passionate insight into all that flourishes from the darkest of places. A breath of fresh air. * Charlotte Philby, author of Edith and Kim * This is an achingly beautiful memoir. It' s a story about motherhood, but also about healing, about growth, about hope. Reading it felt like finding sunlight - I couldn' t put it down. * Catherine Cho, author of Inferno: A Memoir of Motherhood and Madness * Kinchen skilfully weaves together her experiences as a mother and a gardener in this beautiful evocation of a journey through darkness into light. * Sue Stuart-Smith, author of The Well Gardened Mind *
Rosie is a deputy editor and senior writer at the Sunday Times. She has written columns and features for other publications including Vogue, Psychologies and the RHS Garden Magazine. She has a diploma in work-based horticulture and lives in London with her partner and two sons.
Status: Active
ISBN-13: 9781474618175
Published: 9 Jun 2022
Published In: United Kingdom
Imprint: Weidenfeld & Nicolson
Publisher: Orion Publishing Co
Format: Hardback
Height: 222mm
Width: 138mm
Weight: 41g
Pages: 208

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