In this delightful addition to Tom Hodgkinson's much-loved series of guides for the free-spirited the author takes us on a leisurely tour of husbandry & self-sufficiency throughout the calendar year from chopping wood in January to mowing meadows in July & brewing beer in October. Drawing on the wisdom of an eclectic range of thinkers & writers
- & on comic recountings of Tom's own frequently imperfect & frequently hilarious experiences
- Brave Old World" offers tips advice & above all hope. Why it asks shouldn't we return to the ideals of a pre-capitalist pre-Puritan pre-consumerist world of feasting dancing horse-riding wood-chopping fire-laying poultry-rearing bartering bread-baking & bee-keeping? From January to December " Brave Old World" charts the progress of a year in pursuit of the pleasures of the past taking seriously
- though not without much incidental comedy
- G.K. Chesterton's exhortation ' We must go back to freedom or forward to slavery'."