An allotment. 'A '10 pole' space about the size of a doubles tennis court for the growing of fruit and vegetables.' A health-giving, heart-filling miniature kingdom of carrots, courgettes and callaloo. A microcosm for our societies at large as people claim their 'patch' and guard it fiercely, but also of welcoming arms, gifted gluts and new recipes from across the seas.

They are places of resilience, resistance and freedom with a radical history (and the potential to be so again). They are blowsy dahlias, cricket on the radio and pigeons in lofts; buzzing bees and the wisdom of weeds and seeds.

This Allotment brings together twelve brilliant writers in a glorious celebration of these entirely unique spaces: plots that mean so much more than the soil upon which they sit.