People ask where Cairndhu is. Well, I thought it was in my imagination but it turns out there are places called Cairndhu. The one in the book is a thing of the past, a mining village where people were a community, worked together, played together, prayed together. I was lucky to be brought up in that atmosphere. I suppose it was being in the dark for the working shift that made us all appreciate the colours and scents of the flowers.
Sullatober Dalton

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1535417188

I want to share a few of my flower show pictures, as much to look at them again as to try to brighten this gloomy weather.

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I love going to local flower shows, not the Chelsea, where I'm supposed to 'get a message' from the various garden designs but the ones where I can just enjoy the flowers. Unfortunately, I don't know all the names but I do enjoy the beauty. This is an example

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Wartime recipes

My grandfather grew tomatoes during the war and even tried tobacco. He made it into a kind of tarry cord. I've no idea how it smoked but it smelled like a rubbish heap.http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1535417188

Dig for Victory

At the time in which Best in Show was written, the competition was amateur. There were no sponsors or grants from seed companies but yet the Show was a highlight in the year. Most people still gardened after being asked to Dig for Victory during the war years and it was only the most brass necked that allowed their garden to become full of weeds or turned it into a paved or gravelled yard. My father didn't exhibit and was allowed to visit the various greenhouses and gardens as a consultant and, naturally, I was taken along to share the fun and the tea and cake a visit deserved. I still visit the village at flower show time but you'll note the title is not in capitals and every year or so, another school friend can't come. Despite everything, the Earl and the Countess still come to open the Show and maintain the tradition.

Mining Village, humour, How green was my valley, respect, compassion, love, community life - In the years Best in Show is set in, the mining villages were real communities. Everyone know everyone and most of their history and intimate detail from the day they were born. It meant people knew who they could depend on, who would do a thing today, who would do it properly and who would start but never finish. If someone was lazy, they were left in peace. If someone needed a job and a suitable job came up, they were recommended. At school, those with ability were expected to do better and chastised if they didn't try hard enough. The equality was that everyone was expected to make what contribution they were capable of. The leader of the band was respected for that, even if he was lazy at work. People like Broon, were respected for their garden and not despised for doing a lowly job. Many, starting with How Green Was My Valley have painted life it those villages as doom and gloom but it was far from that, there was a great deal of love and compassion and gentle humour.

Flower Show, Scotland, Mining Villages, 1953, Nostalgia - Best in Show started with a bit of an autobiography, which I asked my friend Jake Buchanan to read. It was his talking of the flower shows we remembered from our young days in the mining villages in Southern Scotland that started me exploring the idea of a book about a flower show. One of my memories of those days is of an afternoon dance organised for the teens at which my future wife asked me to dance and I, terribly embarrassed, having to admit I could neither waltz nor quickstep. Unfortunately, both Jake and my wife are dead and I hope I have created something they would have enjoyed.
Sullatober Dalton