It is chock full of useful practical data; there is no fluff or non essential padding. This may make it seem like pretty dry reading. Not a bit of it. The style is engaging and easy to read. I read it in chunks on my daily commmute, and it lends itself well to this approach.

The book falls down on the index which is much too brief and is not all that useful. The glossary could do with expanding as well, since there were some words that get an explanation in the body of the text, but when you see it, for example in a seed catalogue, you can't remember what it means (e.g. F1 type)

The title is also slightly misleading. The book would have to be about five times the size for it to be truly a manual, since although pretty much every subject is covered, the coverage is not as deep as I would have liked.

This is not a problem really, since after reading this book you will probably want to break out into more specialist books that cover specific subjects in more detail anyway. It thus gives you a good grounding in the basics of running a smallholding, and an idea of where to go next.

This was the second book I read on the subject, the first being "Starting with a Smallholding" by David Hills, which is a slim volume, giving an overview of the subject. Katie Thear takes this to the next level and was a thoroughly worthwhile buy.

RK


Not quite a Manual   February 16, 2003
 127 out of 129 found this review helpful

The book is aimed at established smallholders and those just starting out. For the estabalished smallholder you would bo hard pushed to find any new information. for those just starting out this book will provide good information on finding a smallholding . It gives good advice on the things you might overlook such as the buildings, boundaries, water and electric supply. While good on these subjects, the rest of the book aimed at growing crops and raising livestock, looks like it has taken the useful information from specialized books and thrown it away,and used the rest to fill up the empty pagesof this book.
If just starting or an experienced smallholder an essential book to own would be The Complete Book of Self-Sufficiency by John Seymour. This book is the real "Smallholders Manual". The book has high levels of information on growing, livestock, feeding (you and livestock) and storing. and for those with a smallholding I would recommend The River Cottage Cookbook by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. This book will tell you what to do with your produce.