Author(s): Alice Vincent

Gardening | Mind | Nature Writing | Women's Histories | Feminism | Plants | Biography and Memoir

A stunning meditation on why women are drawn to the soil. Women have always gardened, but our stories have been buried with our work. Alice Vincent is on a quest to change that. To understand what encourages women to go out, work the soil, plant seeds and nurture them, even when so many other responsibilities sit upon their shoulders. To recover the histories that have been lost among the soil. Why Women Grow is a much-needed exploration of why women turn to the earth, as gardeners, growers and custodians. This book emerged from a deeply rooted desire to share the stories of women who are silenced and overlooked. In doing so, Alice fosters connections with gardeners that unfurl into a tender exploration of women's lives, their gardens and what the ground has offered them, with conversations (with Ali Smith, Hazel Gardiner, Cosey Fanni Tutti, and others) spanning creation and loss, celebration and grief, power, protest, identity and renaissance. Wise, curious and sensitive, Why Women Grow follows Alice in her search for answers, with inquisitive fronds reaching and curling around the intimate anecdotes of others.

Review: 'Why Women Grow shows the beauty and grit of tending the soil in difficult times. Alice Vincent shows us that the cure for uncertainty is to get mud under our nails' - KATHERINE MAY, author of WINTERING 
'Alice's writing is sublime. Gentle yet certain, warm yet fierce. Why Women Grow is an exquisite exploration of our many womanhoods and the reasons why some of us find our steadiness and solace in our relationship to the earth. I adored it.' - CLAIRE RATINON, author of UNEARTHED
'Alice Vincent has written something wonderful. Why Women Grow is a book that not only presents us with the beauty of the earth but asks one of the most fundamental questions to the human condition: what does it mean to create? I loved the way she wrote about the ambivalent power of the maternal question. I was delighted to travel around the country with her, digging into people's lives, private spaces and plants. We need more books about women, wombs and our role in the world; Alice has done that with charm, humour and an impressive depth of knowledge' - NELL FRIZZELL, author of THE PANIC YEARS
'With an infectious curiosity and openheartedness, Alice Vincent delves into the complex and fascinating reasons women tend their gardens. She illuminates stories of defiance, creativity and resilience as she excavates what it means to be a woman on the cusp of a new life stage' - LULAH ELLENDER, author of GROUNDING
'Praise for Rootbound: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
Prizes: Short-listed for People's Book Prize - Non-fiction 2022/2023 (UK).

Author Biography: Alice Vincent is a journalist and the author of three books, including Rootbound: Rewilding a Life, which was longlisted for the Wainwright Prize and named as one of the books of 2020 by the Financial Times and the Independent. A self-taught gardener, Alice is a columnist for Gardens Illustrated and writes for titles including Vogue and the New Statesman. She has been documenting her gardening online since 2015 and has since launched a newsletter and podcast. She lives in South London.