This inspirational and authoritative book on mental health and physical labour teaches us how vital gardening can be as an escape for the brain and how having green fingers can help our minds through movement as well as thought. How can getting outdoors help us to look after our mental health? In a powerful combination of contemporary neuroscience, psychoanalysis and brilliant storytelling, The Well Gardened Mind investigates the magic that many gardeners have known for years – working with nature can radically transform our health, wellbeing and confidence. Prisoners given the chance to grow plants are less likely to reoffend. At-risk young people who get their hands in the soil are more likely to stay in education. Elderly people who garden live longer and have a better quality of life. Sue Stuart-Smith tells brilliant, illuminating stories of people struggling with stress, depression, trauma and addiction, from asylum seekers to veterans, inner-city young people to the retired. This is a glorious book of science, insight and anecdote that shows how our understanding of nature and its restorative powers is only just beginning to flower.

'An important and timely book … Beautifully written, drawing on a lifetime's experience as both a clinician and a gardener, and I urge everyone to read it' MONTY DON

‘Riveting, inspiring and often very moving … A lively, compassionate exhortation for us all to get our hands back in the soil' ISABELLA TREE‘

A compelling and deeply moving account of how profoundly our wellbeing can be affected through contact with gardening and the natural world … Read it' EDMUND DE WAAL