This post contains gifted items.

I’m not an influencer, but an enormous fan of transparency, so we are going to get that out there in the first instance. One book gifted by the author because she is a friend, (In Bloom) and the other by a publisher (The Flower Fix) All the others I purchased.

For reasons that we might go in to one day, I have a renewed interest in the written word. A lady just came in to try and sell me some floor mats, and i’ve lost my train of thought, but books are good, I think is where we got to.

There are also a lot of them, and they come with 50% off the RRP from Amazon, with a huge social media jazz handing, and then end up in the charity shop. Magazines, those that did not die, have gone the other way. They now cost £25.00 are all but advertisement free, and contain some of the most creative work I have seen for a long time. These ones I think are worthy of your time, and I am keen for more suggestions.

1. The Allotment Andrew Buurman from Dewi Lewis publishing a glorious photographic story of the largest allotment site in the UK.

2. In Bloom by Clare Nolan. I have known Clare for years, and this book is glorious. Full of information on growing and arranging and it is beautifully photographed by Clare herself. I have had my copy for a few weeks, and it is full of post it notes, as I have devoured the information, and learnt what better to do next year.

3. The Flower Fix by Anna Potter and India Hobson. This is everything you would expect from the power house that is Anna and India. Instantly recognisable images, wonderful sets and a how to section.

4. Pleasure Garden. Magazine from The Garden Edit I don’t know that i’m cool enough for this magazine, but it will make you ask a lot of questions about your creativity, inspire you to be better, and leave you feeling hopelessly inadequate all at the same time. If you are into that form of masochism, it is painfully beautiful.

5. Small Town Inertia J.A. Mortram Blue Coat Press If you buy any of these books, buy this book, buy a print, follow on Instagram, go and see the exhibition, and then come back to me and we will talk about it in another post. I have had the book in the shop, and the conversations that have stemmed from it have been really interesting, insightful and worrying.