NewsColony

ROGER MORGAN-GRENVILLE reveals how a chance meeting in a pub gave him a sweet idea NewsColony This ex-soldier was stuck in a midlife rut. Then a chance meeting in a pub gave him a sweet idea. Now his magical memoir tells how, with a few sticky moments, he’s never had a buzz like it.  Like many old countrymen of his era, my grandfather’s gardener Mr Fowler had a flat cap that he never took off, a pipe kept permanently in his mouth, and some very old-fashioned views about horticulture. He maintained, for example, that the best time to plant potatoes was when the soil had warmed up sufficiently after winter that you could sit on it comfortably with your bare backside. I still like to think of the half-shocked, half-delighted Mrs Fowler looking out from the kitchen window at her husband perched among the spring greens, testing the temperature in the traditional way with a far-away look in his eye. Fortunately, the potato-planting season had long passed when, one midsummer afterno...