During the pandemic, when life stopped, and nature continued, author of ‘Hark’, Alice Vincent, asked women online why they garden. What followed was an influx of stories from women across the world. In ‘Why Women Grow’, Vincent travels to meet these women to answer her question. Her travels take her all over: a flourishing balcony in Canary Wharf, a prison in Kent, and a secluded garden in Denmark (to name a few). With each conversation, Vincent digs beneath the white, privileged, often male image of the ‘gardener’ to unveil the extraordinary reasons women turn to the earth – to set down roots during change, to deal with death by planting life, to cope with trauma, to create the space that society doesn’t grant them. This book is a unique collection of stories, a breath of fresh air, and a reminder of the often-overlooked power of the soil. IM

Published by Canongate Books