'When I am disturbed, even angry, gardening has been a therapy. When I don't want to talk I turn to Plot 29, or to a wilder piece of land by a northern sea. There, among seeds and trees, my breathing slows; my heart rate too. My anxieties slip away.' As a young boy in 1960s Plymouth, Allan Jenkins and his brother, Christopher, were rescued from their care home and fostered by an elderly couple. There, the brothers started to grow flowers in their riverside cottage. They found a new life with their new mum and dad. As Allan grew older, his foster parents were never quite able to provide the family he and his brother needed, but the solace he found in tending a small London allotment echoed the childhood moments when he grew nasturtiums from seed. Over the course of a year, Allan digs deeper into his past, seeking to learn more about his absent parents. Examining the truths and untruths that he'd been told, he discovers the secrets to why the two boys were in care. What emerges is a vivid portrait of the violence and neglect that lay at the heart of his family. A beautifully written, haunting memoir, Plot 29 is a mystery story and meditation on nature and nurture. It's also a celebration of the joy to be found in sharing food and flowers with people you love.

In the heart of London's Covent Garden, J Sheekey has been offering the finest fish, oysters, shellfish and other fruits de mer since the 1890s. Josef Sheekey was a market stall holder given permission by Lord Salisbury to serve fish and seafood in his 1896 property development in St Martin's Court, on the proviso that he supply meals to Salisbury's after-theatre dinner parties. Over a century later, the restaurant retains its late-Victorian charm and buzzes with fashionable folk and famous faces. The menu takes in prime fish such as Dover and lemon sole, brill and salmon, with seasonal specials such as Esk sea trout with lovage and girolles, roast lobster with sweetbreads and salt baked bass. Old favourites include lobster thermidor and Sheekey's famous fish pie. J Sheekey Fish immortalises recipes from this renowned kitchen. Sheekey Executive Chef Tim Hughes has teamed up with legendary cookery editor Allan Jenkins to create the cookery book event of 2012.