On The Roof: A Thatcher's Journey [Paperback]

Thatched roofs are like living organisms: each one a web of repair, replacement and alteration, shaped, dressed and re-moulded by every pair of hands that works on it. Thatching is one of the world's oldest crafts - an ancient trade that roots us in nature, as Tom Allen discovered when he quit an office job to become an apprentice in Devon. Now a master of the trade, inOn the Roofhe goes in search of its history and future, meeting fellow thatchers, from the son of a lobster fisherman who thatches with a dune grass in the Hebrides, to a Syrian refugee who found peace among the seagrass roofs of Denmark, to one of the first women to master Japan's 5,000-year-old thatching tradition. Eye-opening, beautifully told and revealing a tradition hand-shaped over centuries,On the Roofis a story of how we live with the land and how we have chosen to treat it.GBTom Allan has worked as a thatcher in South Devon since 2012. Before this he planted hedges in the Scottish Borders and worked for a London publishing house. He writes about the natural world for theGuardian's Country Diary column, and has written on travel and the environment for theFinancial Times,Guardian, theEarth Island Journal, British Wildlife Magazine, and others.'An excellent, beautifully written book' Patrick Galbraith, Sunday Times 'A rich and hugely enjoyable celebration of the local, the vernacular and traditional ... a beautifully written craftsman's memoir' Daily MailThis well written blend of travelogue and paean to an ancient craft is beguiling - Country Life