Unearthed: On Race and Roots, and How the Soil Taught Me I Belong

"When we speak of our origins, that which made us, we speak of our roots. We acknowledge how our identities are intertwined with land, whether it's the one we are standing on or another we lay claim to."

Unearthed is the story of how Claire Ratinon found belonging through falling in love with growing plants. For years her troubled relationship with the land of her birth left her feeling unwanted, but reconnecting with nature allowed her finally to put down roots.

Like many diasporic people of color, Claire grew up feeling cut off from the natural world. She lived in cities, reluctant to be outdoors and stuck with the belief that success and status could fill the space where belonging was absent.

Through learning the practice of growing food, she unpicked her beliefs about who she ought to be. Over her first year living in the English countryside and with the first vegetable patch of her own, she finds a pathway back to nature's embrace. And through growing the food of Mauritius, recording her parents' stories and exploring the history of the island, she also strengthens her connection to her homeland.

A beautiful work of nature-writing, memoir and storytelling, Unearthed urges us to look to the world outside for the belonging and home we seek. It is a heartfelt call to reconsider our history, the way we think about nature and the complex relationships we all have with the land.

Author: Claire Ratinon
Publisher: Chatto & Windus
Published: 12/27/2022
Pages: 320
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 0.88lbs
Size: 8.58h x 5.51w x 1.34d
ISBN13: 9781784744472
ISBN10: 1784744476
BISAC Categories:
- Biography & Autobiography | Personal Memoirs
- Gardening | Vegetables
- Social Science | Ethnic Studies | African Studies

About the Author
Claire Ratinon is an organic food grower and writer of Mauritian heritage. After a chance encounter with a rooftop farm while living in New York City, Claire discovered her love for growing vegetables. She returned to London, where she left her career in documentary production, and has been pursuing her passion for plants ever since.

Claire has grown organic vegetables for the Ottolenghi restaurant, Rovi; delivered workshops to audiences from East London primary schools to community gardens; given talks for organisations including Whitechapel Gallery, The Garden Museum, Charleston House and the Royal Botanical Garden Edinburgh as well as presenting features on Radio 4's Gardeners' Question Time. Her writing has been featured in Waitrose Food Magazine, Bloom and the New Statesman and her first book, How to Grow Your Dinner Without Leaving The House, was published in 2020. She lives in East Sussex.