{"product_id":"on-the-roof-a-thatchers-journey-9781788167444","title":"On the Roof: A Thatcher's Journey","description":"\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eThatched roofs are like living organisms: each one a web of repair, replacement and alteration, shaped, dressed and re-moulded by every pair of hands that works on it.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThatching is one of the world's oldest crafts - an ancient trade that roots us in nature, as Tom Allen discovered when he quit an office job to become an apprentice in Devon. Now a master of the trade, in \u003ci\u003eOn the Roof\u003c\/i\u003e he goes in search of its history and future, meeting fellow thatchers, from the son of a lobster fisherman who thatches with a dune grass in the Hebrides, to a Syrian refugee who found peace among the seagrass roofs of Denmark, to one of the first women to master Japan's 5,000-year-old thatching tradition. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eEye-opening, beautifully told and revealing a tradition hand-shaped over centuries, \u003ci\u003eOn the Roof \u003c\/i\u003eis a story of how we live with the land and how we have chosen to treat it.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTom Allan has worked as a thatcher in South Devon since 2012. Before this he planted hedges in the Scottish Borders and worked for a London publishing house. He writes about the natural world for the \u003ci\u003eGuardian\u003c\/i\u003e's Country Diary column, and has written on travel and the environment for the \u003ci\u003eFinancial Times\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eGuardian\u003c\/i\u003e, the \u003ci\u003eEarth Island Journal, British Wildlife Magazine\u003c\/i\u003e, and others.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Ips - Profile Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51764194279698,"sku":"9781788167444","price":12.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_a9edd3d9-e09d-4deb-9c20-17017c8849bb.jpg?v=1764759685","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/on-the-roof-a-thatchers-journey-9781788167444","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}