Book Review and Giveaway

 

I got a very interesting email last month offering me a free copy of this book in return for an honest review of it.  As it happens the just week before I had bought myself a copy of it whilst perusing the shelves in Waterstones.  Admitting this to Jonathan who is from JJ Books, 'a small independent press in London', between us we came up with the idea of him sending me a copy anyway so I could give one away to one of my readers.

 

Their description of the book -

 

A Little Piece of England is author John Jackson’s amusing account of how he, his wife and three children built up a smallholding in a sliver of countryside in rural Kent over a decade in the sixties and seventies. Through trial and much error, the family came to make themselves self-sufficient in meat, milk, eggs, vegetables and some fruit, while learning various country crafts ‘in their spare time.’

The book features pen and ink illustrations by Val Biro, known as the creator of the Gumdrop books and for his covers for the Radio Times.

John, now 84, is an established author, lawyer, businessman and political and constitutional campaigner, as well as being a keen gardener. He is probably best known as a founder of the Countryside Alliance.

A good place to find out more about John may be his blog – such as this recent example looking at the current revival of interest in self-sufficiency: http://www.jjbooks.com/blog/why-self-sufficiency-now-is-as-important-as-ever

The book was first published by the Collins-Harvill Press 35 years ago as A Bucket of Nuts and A Herring Net: The Birth of a Spare-Time Farm – the title came from John’s unconventional method for rounding up sheep.

 

 

So how did I find it .... well it is very well written and very concise.

 

 I think I can always tell the difference in a 'lifestyle' book when it is written by a man rather than a woman, somehow there is less of the minutia of day to day life and more facts and accounts of things as they happened.  More specifics and less emotion is how I guess I would describe it, so in this way it is a really good read if you are starting out on a small holding or on the road to self sufficiency.  But saying all that, it is a very good read for most people and one that I would recommend especially to anyone who has a self sufficiency lust or who just loves reading about other peoples struggles with animals.

 

Reading about how he had to chase his escaping sheep over other peoples land brought back memories of chasing our Large Black pigs as they headed for the M40 when we lived in Oxfordshire.  Sometimes learning the hard way is the best way to learn.  Now we know how to settle pigs behind an electric strand!!

 

So if you fancy having a copy of this book to add to your bookshelf please leave a comment below. 

 

 The Giveaway is open to all Followers and long time readers of my Blog as my way of saying Thank You for taking the time to read about our day to day adventures, you being there to confess all our mishaps to and to share the times when we do actually get something right makes it somehow much more rewarding.

 

I'm now vanishing for four whole days, a day that I'm spending with Mum and her friends down the road in Llandudno, a day being spent with my younger son, just shopping and catching up, a day being spent car booting our excess clutter .... and a whole day of working on the hillside with my Lovely Hubby, so you will have plenty of time to add your name to the comments and give yourself a chance to win this lovely book.

 

For any of you that can't wait that long I will put a link to the Amazon page so you can purchase a copy for yourself.

 

I'll be back on Monday with the winner of the Giveaway. 

Good Luck.

(Oh and I'm willing to post to anywhere in the world.)

 

Sue xx