Maggie moved to Horsham, West Sussex in 2000. She began evening classes studying for a BA Landscape Studies at University of Sussex. Maggie was aware that retirement was approaching fast, and so was keen to continue her studies with a six-year part time DPhil Landscape Studies and was awarded her doctorate in 2014. Since then she has focussed on writing; fiction, non-fiction and poetry. She published St Leonard's Forest, West Sussex: A Landscape History, in 2020 through local publishing company Author's Pen. Simon qualified with a BA in Illustration and has since worked as a graphic designer and is a very capable typesetter and Lesley Hart's right hand man when it comes to the technical side of book design and creation. He has a can-do positive attitude and embraces new challenges. Lesley Hart has worked as an editor and publisher since August 2020 and as a creative writing teacher since 2017. Prior to this she worked in primary education for eight years and in her local sixth-form college library for eight years - so she's passionate about children's literacy and books. She launched her complete author service called Author's Pen UK in August 2020. In November 2018, having graduated with an MA in creative writing from Lancaster University she discovered that publishing can be a minefield. Authors are understandably desperate to avoid vanity publishers and other scams - who can blame them! Using knowledge gleaned from hundreds of online and face-to-face courses, she decided to help authors from initial idea to published author; Author's Pen UK was born.
This book provides a background to the chequered history of our sites, how we have nearly lost some along the way and how some have moved, sometimes just around the corner, to accommodate housing or other needs. It not only tells us about the history of the allotment movement and our own individual sites, but Maggie has visited and spoken to tenants at each site and recorded their stories and memories. It's a fascinating read and if you don't already have an allotment, it will certainly encourage you to think about taking one on! Lynda Cheeseman HDC Parks & Countryside Officer, 1994-2020