Resurrection in a Bucket: The rich and fertile story of compost

(Paperback)

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Description

One woman's slightly obsessed search for the history and meaning of compost. Say the word 'compost' at any social gathering and chances are you'll get a lively discussion. There might be a couple of faintly apologetic people who can't compost due to domestic circumstances, or a few who feign compliance out of political correctness, but there are always the true believers who compost with a passion. For them, composting gives a practical connection to the earth, it transforms the worthless into the useful, it is a spiritual phenomenon concerned with life and death...it is 'resurrection in a bucket'. This book is not so much a 'how to' as a social history of compost. Interspersed with interviews from obsessed composters who offer their secrets to success, it's a humourous and entertaining read with a serious undertone - after all, the history of The Heap is the history of modern humanity, as you've never seen it before, through its waste.

Author Bio

Margaret Simons' journalistic and writing career has always existed side by side with her gardening life. For years she lived in the Blue Mountains of New South Wales, where she kept chooks, had multiple compost heaps and was self sufficient in vegetables for much of the year. She shared this experience through the 'Mother Earth' gardening column which was published for many years in the Weekend Australian, before moving to the Age 'Sunday Life' magazine. She has written two novels, an insider's view of the Canberra press gallery (Fit to Print, 1999), a gardening memoir (Wheelbarrows Chooks and Children, 2000) and The Meeting of the Waters, about the Hindmarsh Island affair, which won the 2003 Queensland Premier's Literary Award for Best Non-Fiction. She lives in Melbourne with her partner and two children.