yeovilliteraryfestival

Tom Allan: On the Roof

On the Roof is a thatcher's tale - a journey of discovery, and a reflection on what it means for a person or a building to belong in a place.

It tells Tom Allan's story, leaving an office job in the city to find fulfilment among the Devon roofs, as well as the stories of six other people who share his trade.

We meet the Hebridean son of a lobster fisherman who thatches with a dune-growing grass, a Syrian refugee who found peace among the seagrass roofs of a Danish island, and one of the first women to become master of Japan's 5,000-year-old craft of thatching.

Thatching is an ancient, living tradition. To be a thatcher is to belong to a craft almost endless in its reach - at once one of the oldest ways of giving shelter, a way of working close to the land, and a deep immersion in the rhythms of a place on the most local scale possible: a village, a valley, an island. As Allan reveals, the story of thatching is the story of our relationship with the land, and how we have chosen to treat it.

Tom 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 Guardian's Country Diary column, and has written on travel and the environment for the Financial Times, Guardian, the Earth Island Journal, British Wildlife Magazine, and others.

This event will be held in Wheeldon Suites 2 & 3.

Tickets: £12.50
Footlights: Discount applies

This is a Yeovil Literary Festival Event

A £1.50 ticket levy is included in all stated ticket prices.
All bookings are subject to a £2 transaction Fee.