Mandy Sutter, Writer

Dad always found Christmas a difficult day. But we got through it one way or another… Once Mum and Dad moved up to Yorkshire, Mr Mandy Sutter and I formed a routine of cooking a turkey at our house and taking it round to their flat to meet up with the sprouts and potatoes. It […]

Last in a series of reissued blog posts in memory of my Dad… I have come to love Autumn, with its promise of a long brutal winter to come that freezes the ground and makes gardening impossible. But this year when September arrives, Dad rings with strange news. ‘You’ll never guess. We’ve been awarded the […]

So much is happening down at the allotments that I hardly know where to begin. The last we saw of head-scarved Harry, he was ashen-faced and coke-addled following his botched gender reassignment. The Lady of Shallot was disembodied in the shed, dreaming of a handsome hobby-horse person she’d glimpsed on another plot. Harry and Shally’s […]

The romance between scarecrow lovers Harry and the Lady of Shallot was blighted from the get-go.  Then our allotment neighbour, in the grip of a fantasy about juicy cukes, erected a massive poly tunnel between them. Nevertheless, I have held out hope for the foiled pair. It is windy at our allotments and I’ve hoped […]

November is an uninspiring time for gardeners. Days are indecently short, and the grunt work of weeding and digging isn’t balanced by the usual joy of planting.