2024-10-15
1 小时 6 分钟In the summer of 1941, German troops surrounded Leningrad with a plan to besiege the city and starve its population into submission.
So began the longest blockade in recorded human history.
At that time, the world's first and largest seed bank was situated in the middle of the city.
The converted palace building held around a quarter of a million seeds that had been collected from every continent in the world by its founder, the explorer Nikolai Vavilov.
As the siege ring closed around Leningrad, attempts to evacuate this priceless collection failed.
Now, as a commando unit of Nazi botanists approach the city with a plan to steal the seeds, the Soviet state abandons the seed bank and its workers.
The botanists faced a terrible decision.
Should they distribute the seeds to Leningrad's starving population?
Or should they preserve them in the hope that one day they or other scientists might use the specimens to breed crops and end global famine?
My book, the Forbidden Garden of Leningrad seeks to tell for the first time the full story of these individuals.
Order your copy now online, wherever you get your books.
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SA My Guest today is an award winning humorist writer and presenter.
Born in Dundee, Scotland, he published his first professional video game review at the age of 13 while conducting work experience for Sega Power, a magazine that subsequently offered him a job.
At 22, after graduating from the University of Westminster, he became a BBC comedy producer, working on hit series such as Dead Ringers and the mighty boosh.
In 2003, he published Join Me, a book about how he accidentally started a cult.