When I  first saw this book in the Oxfam sorting room my expectations were wrong, wrong, wrong. I thought the covers would be loose, if not totally detached; I thought the contents would be of no practical use if not boring and I thought the writing would be turgid.

Instead, this book, aged 112, is holding together well, the information is really interesting and mainly still horticulturally useful and the style is spare and direct.

I’m going to find it hard to return this book to the shop for the publication of this post – it’s been such fun to dip into random articles over the last couple of days and I’ve learnt all sorts of interesting things such as where to build a cottage for my gardener, which plants would thrive in my garden if I had the misfortune to live in a smoky city, where to buy the best clay pots (Weston-super-Mare) and the value for the garden of bullock’s blood, offal from the slaughterhouse and sugar-baker’s scum. I’ve also had a timely reminder to water the spinach during these hot days.

This is an ‘entirely new and greatly enlarged edition’ of what must have been a very popular book. There are 500 illustrations and even, surprisingly, some in luscious colour.

Beeton’s All about Gardening  is on sale at Oxfam Wilmslow for £4.99.