Emma Cooper

Once upon a time, I wrote a book. I wanted to write the kind of gardening book that I would read – one full of interesting snippets of information and personal experience, which wasn’t preachy but inspired people to go out into their garden and plant something they could eat – and then get involved in the wider world of sustainable gardening. I didn’t want to write a comprehensive veg growing manual – there are plenty of people who do that better than me, and a wealth of titles already out there to choose from. I didn’t intend to write a primer for novice gardeners either – new versions of those are published every year, either in spring or in the run up to Christmas.

I took a lot of photos, wrote a lot of words and then passed the torch to Permanent Publications, who did some editing and layout and sent it off to the printer. The Alternative Kitchen Garden: An A to Z was the result, published just over a year ago. I should also say that during the process of writing and producing the book I discovered some wonderful people who helped with proofing, a foreword and pre-publication PR quotes and were generally selfless and wonderful (including the late and lamented Elspeth Thompson).

Inevitably, sooner or later a book gets a bad review, which you’re expected to take on the chin but is quite disappointing. No book is perfect, but a lot of them (and particularly first books, I would imagine) are crafted with love. I was not hoping to write a bestseller, become a world famous author and retire to Barbados to live off gigantic royalty cheques for the rest of my days, occasionally graciously accepting a commission to write another volume. I wanted to share my vision of a gardening world, and to connect with people into the bargain – exactly as I do here, but in a handy portable format.

Which is why a recent review of my book in RALPH* magazine annoys me. For a start, the magazine is a “Review of Arts, Literature, Philosophy and the Humanities”, and I don’t think my book would qualify as any of those, so they’re clearly not my target audience.

And the reviewer has clearly missed the point of the book. With hindsight, the decision to call it ‘An A to Z’ might have misled some readers into thinking it was a comprehensive tome, perhaps more so in the US than here in the UK. But from its size, it clearly isn’t. And she also says it starts with “A is for Apple” and “B is for Beans” – it doesn’t. It starts with “A is for Achocha”, which should give you a better idea of what it’s going to be about.

The review goes on to say that the topics are apparently picked at random, that they’re aren’t enough of them and that none of them are covered in enough depth to satisfy your curiosity (score one for me then – stirring curiosity was one of my aims). The reviewer was apparently motivated to go out and buy a copy of a seed saving book after reading my seed saving section, so I get another point there.

I am taken to task for including plants that I personally don’t like very much (do you think the writers of all those kitchen garden manuals love each and every vegetable equally?) and accused of including plenty that I would “never put in my mouth”. Which isn’t true – the reviewer mentions aubergines (beautiful, ornamental plants), basil (endless varieties available) and borage (much loved by ladybirds), all of which I have eaten and would eat again. They’re just not my favourites. Apparently with “so few” plants mentioned in the book, I should have stuck to the ones I like. But although there may not be hundreds of plants that get their own section, I counted over 60 that I mentioned in a quick flip through.

The reviewer does say that there are some interesting tidbits dispersed through the book, and that the photos are lovely – but apparently they are tiny and my book would work much better as a coffee table book with a hardcover and giant photos (and a price tag that would put most people off!). Sadly I wanted something people could read in bed, on the train, or take out into the garden.

There are plenty of times that I have bought a book and it hasn’t turned out to be what I hoped it was. But these days, with so much book information on the internet, Google Books previews and lots and lots of review sites (I link to the reviews I find on my Books tab), there’s no reason to waste money on a book that isn’t what you want – you can spend as much time looking at it before you buy as you would in a bookstore.

I my case, you can even ask me. If you’d like to know what’s in my book, whether it will solve all your gardening problems (it won’t) or make you laugh (it might) and give you some ideas (it will) then you can email me and I will do my best to ascertain whether it is worth a space on your bookshelf.

And if you’re a blogger or an online book reviewer then there’s still a few days left to apply to become one of my next batch of reviewers to be given a free copy of my book. But please don’t apply if it isn’t the kind of book you will enjoy reading, because I wouldn’t want to waste your time!