Trowel and Error is described as a "touch of the memoirs" by the author. Alan Titchmarsh is now a national institution; with his characteristic good humour and charm, he is unquestionably the country's number-one television gardener and presenter with even an unlikely reputation as a sex symbol (a reputation that started as a joke). Apart from his considerable gardening acumen, of course, he has also proved to be a novelist of genuine ability, with such books as Mr MacGregor and Animal Instincts.

Communication is, needles to say, his special skill, and it was to be expected that Trowel and Error (the groan-inducing pun is all part of the Titchmarsh armoury), would be revealing and evocative. Titchmarsh announced to school friends of the age of 10 that he would be the next Percy Thrower, although those ambitions were, he tells us, fudged in some uncomfortable encounters with the opposite sex (Titchmarsh always picked girls who were taller than him, and the relationships didn't last). In fact his Yorkshire childhood in the 1950s is one of the most purely enjoyable parts of the book, with his stamping ground of Ilkley Moor the seat of his passionate love for nature. His first experiences as a gardener at the Royal Botanical Garden at Kew are full of the kind of quirky incident that makes his writing appealing. As his fame grew, Titchmarsh began rubbing shoulders with the likes of Nelson Mandela Julia Roberts and the Queen, and such encounters are highly diverting.

Many a book conceals a rampant ego behind an "aw, shucks" manner, but Titchmarsh comes across as a genuinely nice guy--one who is self-deprecating. This is a truly engaging (and often very funny) autobiography. --Barry Forshaw