"A preoccupation of the self-sufficient person should be the correct attitude to the land. If it ever comes to pass that we have used up all, or most of, the oil on this planet, we will have to reconsider our attitude to our only real and abiding asset - the land itself. We will one day have to derive our sustenance from what the land, unaided by oilderived chemicals, can produce. "

- John Seymour (writing before the climate change scare which is driving us to abandon fossil fuels before they actually run out)


John Seymour (12 June 1914 - 14 September 2004) is best known today for is book The Complete Guide to Self-sufficiency first published in 2003.

What are often overlooked are the many other books he wrote prior to that which are now sadly out of print. These include The Hard Way To India (1951), Boys in the Bundu (1955), Round About India (1955), One Man's Africa (1956), Sailing Through England (1956), The Fat of the Land (1961), On My Own Terms (1963), Willynilly to the Baltic (1965), Voyage into England (1966), The Companion Guide to East Anglia (1970), About Pembrokeshire (1971), The Book of Boswell - autobiography of a gypsy (1970), Self-Sufficiency (1973), Farming for Self-Sufficiency - Independence on a 5-Acre Farm (1973), The Companion Guide to the Coast of South-West England (1974), The Companion Guide to the Coast of North-East England (1974), The Companion Guide to the Coast of South-East England (1975), The Complete Book of Self-Sufficiency (1976), Bring Me My Bow (1977), Keep It Simple (1977), The Countryside Explained (1977), I'm A Stranger Here Myself - the story of a Welsh farm (1978), The Self-Sufficient Gardener (1978), John Seymour's Gardening Book (1978), Gardener's Delight (1978), Getting It Together - a guide for new settlers (1980), The Lore of the Land (1982), The Woodlander (1983), The Smallholder (1983), The Shepherd (1983), The Forgotten Arts (1984), Far from Paradise - the story of man's impact on the environment (1986), London: BBC Publications. (with Herbert Girardet) Blueprint for a Green Planet' (1987), The Forgotten Household Crafts (1987), England Revisited - a countryman's nostalgic journey (1988), The Ultimate Heresy (1989), Changing Lifestyles - living as though the world mattered (1991), Rural Life - pictures from the past (1991), Blessed Isle - one man's Ireland (1992), Seymour's Seamarks (1995), Retrieved from the Future (1996), Rye from the Water's Edge (1996), Playing It For Laughs - a book of doggerel (1999), The Forgotten Arts And Crafts (2001), The New Complete Book of Self-Sufficiency (2002), and The Self-Sufficient Life and How to Live It (2003).


I was very fortunate to have read many of these books, indeed they formed much of the foundation of my own passion for conservation. John Seymour was one of the most influential figures in the green movement in the days before the Green Party was taken over by globalists and Marxists. He understood the importance of local people consuming locally produced food and goods.


John Seymour represents a time when greens knew the value of short supply lines, small government and decentralisation. He also understood the vital role played by livestock in small-scale, mixed family farms. Now as I write these words in 2020 the world needs to relearn these important basic principals of green living more than ever. We have been led down the wrong road for far too long.


Yes the green movement can save and rebuild our planet but only is we first same and rebuild our movement by retuning to fist principals as taught by John Seymour.

The New Complete Book of Self-Sufficiency:
The Classic Guide for Realists and Dreamers
by John Seymour
Foreword by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall