An essential read for anyone with an allotment! - Rated 
This book is a constant companion, humourous, instructive and just plain interesting. I constantly refer to it, for a range of topics ranging from how to cook sweetcorn to building a fruit cage. Anyone with a plot, or who is thinking of becoming an allotment gardener should read this. Thanks to Michael Rand for his insights into plotting, life, everything!
An inspiration - Rated
This book is brilliant, packing more useful advice in its pages than many a lavish coffee table manual. And the prose is a joy to read. There are two brief historical chapters out of ten but these are an essential part of the author's story about how he fell in love with his plot and the surrounding area. If you don't already have an allotment, this book will make you sign up for one.
Not bad - Rated 
A little heavy on the page filling waffle, mildly amusing in parts but never hilarious. More a historical look at Hampstead Heath and the surrounding area with intermittent practical allotment advice. Not a patch on Digger's Diary
From Rastas to rhubarb - Rated
In my time as a journalist on a local newspaper, one of my more pleasurable duties was to review books, which I got to keep if I wished. More often than not I either returned them for other people to read or gave them away to friends and family. A few, however, remained on my bookshelves for future reference and entertainment.
These favoured tomes, invariably, were by little known authors (little known by me at least), non-fiction and on subjects I would, ordinarily, not contemplate - Fermat’s Last Theorem springs to mind - which brings me, via a circuitous route, to Michael Rand’s recent offering Close to the Veg.
At first glance a book about allotment holding may seem to be very frugal fare indeed but not so in this case. First off, this is not just about the many and varied pleasures that the tending of an allotment can bring; it’s also a semi-autobiographical and frequently hilarious, meandering stroll with Mick through life’s tribulations, as well as being incredibly informative on such subjects as organic growing and natural history.
So, if you’re into allotments you’ll love this and if you’re not, you’ll still get much pleasure from it (I bet you’re dying to know about the Swedish Rastafarian), and I guarantee you’ll keep it on your bookshelf . But don’t lend it out to anyone, make ‘em buy their own copy.
Well done Michael!
A must for all vegetable gardeners, 17 December 2005 - Rated
There aren’t many gardening books that make you laugh, but this one does - out loud. Mr Rand, who certainly knows his onions, has written a wonderfully warm, witty and wise account of the struggles and dilemmas we veg gardeners face in our quest for a good harvest. It’s packed with useful advice and tips, all based on personal experience and solid, accessible science, such as planting out asparagus so that it lies shallow in the soil like it grows in the wild – rather than deep as most books recommend – and the truth about comfrey’s supposed properties as instant manure. There's loads of useful info here for all veg growers, and the author's depiction of life on the plots will strike a chord with all allotment gardeners.
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