A bunch of sweet peas

Outside its pouring with rain and I've just re-read 'A bunch of Sweet Peas' by Henry Donald (published by Canongate Books, Edinburgh). It tells the true story of the 1911 Daily Mail competition to find the best bunch of sweet peas grown by an amateur anywhere in the British Isles. There were 15,000 entries and the prize was won by Mr Denholm Fraser the parish minister of Sprouston near Kelso (who happens to be the author's uncle). The book also has some wonderful water colour illustrations by Ann Ross Paterson.