Rootbound: Rewilding a Life (Paperback)
Alice Vincent (author)- 5+ in stock

Blooming beautifully into life on every page, Vincent’s uplifting memoir-cum-botanical guide documents the author’s attempts to bring a little of her grandfather’s horticultural idyll into her fast-paced urban existence.
'Breathtakingly beautiful' i
'Tender and wholehearted' Helen Jukes
LONGLISTED FOR THE WAINWRIGHT PRIZE
A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR IN THE INDEPENDENT, FINANCIAL TIMES, I and GARDENS ILLUSTRATED
When she suddenly finds herself uprooted, heartbroken, grieving and living out of a suitcase in her late twenties, Alice Vincent begins planting seeds. She nurtures pot plants and vines on windowsills and draining boards, filling her many temporary London homes with green. As the months pass, and with each unfurling petal and budding leaf, she begins to come back to life.
Mixing memoir, botanical history and biography, Rootbound examines how bringing a little bit of the outside in can help us find our feet in a world spinning far too fast.
Publisher: Canongate Books Ltd
ISBN: 9781786897725
Number of pages: 368
Weight: 246 g
Dimensions: 198 x 129 x 22 mm
Edition: Main
MEDIA REVIEWS
This memoir has the potential to be the millennials' answer to Eat Pray Love * * Daily Telegraph * *
Rootbound is a poignant testimony to the joy that greenery will bring to your life, and it is a magical reminder that humans, like plants, can mend and grow in their own good time * * Independent * *
Reading this book is like breathing fresh spring air. Rootbound is achingly honest and earthily good, a beautiful hymn to wild hope, strength and tenderness, in nature and in ourselves. I loved it -- CHARLOTTE RUNCIE author of SALT ON YOUR TONGUE
A book about heartbreak, salvation, nature and balcony gardens . . . Alice Vincent mixes memoir with botanical history to explore how plants can heal us * * Huffington Post * *
A deeply personal exploration of the healing power of plants * * Independent * *
There are riffs on everything from famous women gardeners to the history of New York's wondrous High Line elevated linear park . . . Rootbound gives a revealing insight into Alice's generation, their concerns, self-absorption and earnestness. It also radiates a youthful enthusiasm and optimism, a hunger to reconnect with nature even in the midst of a sea of concrete, and the refreshing belief that anything is possible. Millenials, in particular, will love it * * Daily Mail * *
Unrestrained, exuberant, vigorous, forthright . . . A tender and wholehearted story of re-finding that most precious resource, the space to grow -- HELEN JUKES author of A HONEYBEE HEART HAS FIVE OPENINGS
Heartbreak can be the best teacher . . . [A] hopeful memoir of self-discovery and horticulture . . . A beguiling bouquet whose vibrancy feels extra welcome as the first green shoots of spring start to show * * Mail on Sunday * *
Vincent's story is being held up as a guidebook to the millennial generation's fascination with plants, but it's more than that . . . Beautifully composed . . . A prescient pre-Covid-19 account of how unsatisfactory a life disconnected from nature can be * * Financial Times * *
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“How To Grow”
Alice Vincent's quiet, modest "a year in the life " account of overcoming her relationship break-up, figuring out who she is now and immersing herself into a softer, greener inner world, may appear... More
“Loved it”
I really enjoyed this book - the personal narrative woven into the fascinating stories about plants. I’ve re-read it and will do again. I’d recommend for anyone who likes memoir, plants / gardening, or just beautiful... More
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