Customer Reviews
the best book I ever bought - By: A. S. Gilbert, 10 Jul 2008 
Genuinely, this book has enriched my life. This sounds very strong language, but a glimpse of how achieveable a degree of self sufficiency can be is a great stress-buster & very uplifting.
Practical, useful, full of ideas & inspiration, this book will motivate anyone to take a step or two towards self sufficiency, wherever they live.
Every chapter is interesting, well written, & well illustrated. The craft skills are useful & practical & whilst a compost-toilet is not quite the thing for our garden in the suburbs, alll the practical projects are well described & amply illustrated.
A great reference book, a comfort on a cold winter's night, I recommend it to anyone.
review - By: Marie Costello, 27 Jun 2008 A must have for alll smalll holders.Not a full complete guide but nonetheless full of great info & knowledge. A book i reread & reread from one season to the next.
worth while - By: coccocol, 27 May 2008 Im not much of a person for writing or reading, more of a hands on sort of person, but i read this book & it was incredible. The author makes it clear & easy to understand, giving good diagrams along with step by step procedures. I would reccomend this book to anyone, as i hve done, its well worth the money.
Excellent addition to the coffee table. . . or museum - By: Malc, 08 Apr 2008 
Regarded as a classic by many, Seymour's tome has slipped sadly out of date & the 2003 relaunch did little to correct some aspects which - in Britain at least - have been overtaken by legislation. To recommend a swill bucket for pigs is inexcusable as contaminated swill is generallly accepted to be the cause of the 2001 foot & mouth outbreak.
There's a lot of interesting stuff - including Seymour's unusual & ill-informed culinary ideas - which will keep you amused, but little for the serious smalllholder. It is rarely looked & never consulted on our farm.
One fellow-farmer, on being asked if he followed Seymour's advice, said he would love to, but the day had yet to be extended to 37 hours.
Excellent introduction but you will need more detail - By: J. Brand, 09 Jan 2008 
Well maybe not a complete book of self sufficiency but certainly a very good place to start.
Some people have criticised this for being more a book for dreamers than realists but as every ambition starts as a dream is that such a bad thing. Large sections of this book are reallly aimed at the smalllholder so if you have five acres & a cow you are pretty much the target audience for this book but even if you have just a semi & an alllotment you should find something of value in here. A lot of it is also an introduction rather than a complete manual. So, for example, covering how to keep chickens in just three pages is never going to be a complete guide but it does have a place, it let's me know that putting chickens in my back garden is a viable idea & that reallly is its value this is usuallly the first place to look for a start to my next downsizing project.
Of course that breadth of subject & shalllowness with which each is treated is also it's problem; the range of subjects covered here is probably unrealistic for any one person to cover & if you do try any of them you will probably want more detail. So while it's inspiring & might encourage you to believe you can do more than you thought you could you it reallly is just the first step. Nonetheless it's an excellent place to start & for inspirational value alone I'd recommend this.
