Visual differences made acceptance even less accessible. To have an extra finger or toe must have been looked on as being very odd in the 1800's because it was uncommon. People like Barnum traveled the world in search of human anomalies for his circus acts. Even today seeing a person with an extra digit is unusual but it should not characterize the person as being strange.

What is enjoyable about the book is that it can be considered to be an extension of what might happen if there was a nuclear catastrophe and how life might change. One sees how life gets simpler and that older dwellings were broken down and used to create homes that were more like community centers. This might very well be the scenario given the lack of proper building materials should an actual nuclear war occur.

The reader learns about how puritan David's grandfather and father are and how his uncle would have him promise not to talk about the ability to communicate without talking. We learned about his friend's mother who also asked him to promise not to talk about Sophie's "mutated" feet. One gets the message that the boy is going to be more at odds with the traditional way of thinking that he inherited because of his acceptance of "mutated" people and how he can communicate differently with them.

Is David like any other normal boy wanting to know what the real difference is between being with someone who has an extra toe and who doesn't? As his experiences with his world widen, he meets other humans like one from the Fringes who looked like his dad. But this person had long spindly legs, which was more visible than just seeing an extra toe. One wonders what David must think about his dad getting pale when spotting his double.

Would this have been a twin his who was separated from him when humans mutated and was then forced to live on the outskirts of their civilization? This is a question that one can ask when thinking about how people migrated in the story after a nuclear holocaust and one can only imagine that David knew very little about this. At the same time given the way he submits to his father's ridicule, we can only guess that David is not going to suggest any relationship his family might have with "mutant" human who knew his father's name.

All David knew was through his family; about the stories they passed down that people had somehow mutated and lived on the other bank. The bank symbolized then the margin of accepted human society in the future. As the story progresses the reader finds out about how David lives and how his world became a centre that would be used to combat the invasive forces of the people from the fringes.

In the introduction, Osborne explains how he became a gardeners and why, in a life already full to bursting, he decided to take on an allotment and try and grow his own food. All of the usual reasons feature here - feeling trapped by the daily nine to five grind and wanting to get back to nature and worrying about what's in the food his sons are eating are two of the main ones.

The diary proper starts in January, an inauspicious time to begin a story about gardening, but Osborne manages to pull it off. We are caught up in his appreciation of nature, even when it is freezing outside and everything is coated in frost. There's not much left at the allotment to dig up, but a plentiful harvest of peace and quiet, fresh air and friendly fellow gardeners makes up for that.

Osborne isn't a flawless gardener whose achievements we can't dream of living up to. As the book progresses we realise he hasn't yet dug over his plot and will be behind in spring. He hasn't ordered his onion sets or seed potatoes. Later in the year we watch him nap among the runner beans when he should be weeding, and develop a soft spot for the mice he has been trying to kill.

There are some funny moments, and some poignant ones. The allotments are burgled at one point and attacked by arsonists at another. And yet the spirit of the allotmenteers is not broken, and they still manage to put on a good show when the allotment competition comes around.

Osborne is obviously a keen observer of people, and his characters shine through. The birdman and his wife use their allotment to keep chickens and ducks, and (briefly) homing pigeons. Five Pints uses his to play his saxophone, far enough away from his wife so that she doesn't complain about the racket. Mad Alice believes that Alice Springs was named after her, and Brutally Frank is desperately in need of some tact.

Gardeners will love reading this book. It brings to life all of the reasons why people garden, and you sense you are in the presence of a kindred spirit. There's also the occasional tip to pick up, and the knowledge where the book ends, the new gardening year begins.