Canongate lands Vincent’s second nature memoir

Canongate is to publish Alice Vincent's "major narrative" nature memoir, Why Women Grow. 

Commissioning editor Jo Dingley acquired UK and Commonwealth rights, excluding Canada, from Rachel Mills at Rachel Mills Literary. It will publish in hardback in spring 2023.

Why Women Grow is "a major narrative exploration of why women are drawn to the soil". The publisher said: "It will seek to uncover the deeper connections women have with the land they have been excluded from for so long. Mixing memoir with history, horticulture, diary extracts and journalism, Alice Vincent will look at the reasons why women turn to gardening and growing, incorporating other women’s stories and her own personal story. Why Women Grow will galvanise the desire to grow, and for nature, that so many of us are discovering – and will illuminate the process for those who garden already."

Canongate also published Vincent’s nature memoir Rootbound in 2020, which was longlisted for the Wainwright Prize. Vincent is features editor at Penguin.co.uk, having previously worked as a writer and editor on the arts desk of the Telegraph. She shares her adventures in urban gardening through "Noughticulture", a newsletter and Instagram account.

She said: "I am so excited to be returning to Canongate to work on a book that I find truly fascinating. I have always loved shining a light on the stories that I feel can help us better understand ourselves and the world around us, and I can't wait to tell more of those in Why Women Grow."

Mills added: "I'm thrilled Canongate will be continuing to publish Alice. So many of us have been re-examining the need for nature in our lives, and Alice's cultural investigation of a specifically female relationship to the soil, alongside the continuation of her own moving and personal journey, is beautiful and thought provoking."