Disappointed - Rated 
I was very disappointed with this book .... it didn't contain enough detailed information...its Ok for someone trying to do basic veg growing and energy saving but its title is misleading ...its not really about smallholding.......
Excellent - - Rated 
Initially, I was going to slate this book, because it is very short on the 'how to' . But then I re-read it and changed my view.
It is an excellent, inspirational, little book.
It doesn't give you much by way of 'how to', but there are many 'how to' books out there.
It does give you ideas, backed by sound logic of why you should be doing this. It also lays out the likely cost, hassle and expense of any venture you are likely to undertake. Then you can hunt down the 'how to' book and get on with the project.
If you are concerned with what you eat and the current state of the planet, I recommend this book. It will set you on the path to doing something positive about it. And if we all do our bit... there's hope.
Wonderful summary of producing your own food and energy - Rated
This book is a great summary of the many different things you can do to become more self-sufficient. About how you can produce more of the stuff you need to live on, such as food and energy, instead of buying it all in. The style is one of a series of suggestions rather than prescriptions ('you can' rather than 'you must'). The suggestions all build upon each other, so that you can do just one simple thing on its own or a number of them together.
The book itself is mainly explanatory text with a few diagrams and summary tables. This makes a nice change from many other 'how to' books which are full of glossy colour photographs, but short on informative explanations. However the book itself is not bland, as all the pages are decorated with suitable accompanying drawings of one form or another, on thick paper. Paul's text covers the background to each topic, as well as the main information you need about it. This is a quality and well thought out book.
What I liked was that you are walked through the different aspects of self-sufficiency, each being independent of the other. So you start with how to grow your own food, then raise your own food, then energy efficiency and production and waste. Finally some notes on how to try and go completely self sufficient on your own small holding. While you might not do everything, there will be something everyone can do one way or another in this book.
As someone just getting into trying to grow my own vegetables in my back garden, I found the book useful, realistic and optimistic. While I won't be using the other information on keeping chickens or solar heating for some time, it was interesting to read about them in the larger context of being more self-sufficient. The section on growing vegetables was good enough for me, and provided me with a greater understanding of the different types and how to deal with them. He has also planted ideas for me to come back to in the future.
A super book! - Rated
Paul Waddington's book is a guide to both the pitfalls and many pleasures of being a 21st century smallholder, no matter how small your holding happens to be. Practical, humerous and honest, his book avoids the 'preachy' style and tacit 'you should be feeling guilty about the way you live' attitude that tends to infuse some of the classic titles in the self-sufficiency library. The book does not claim to be an exhaustive 'how to' manual (and has a good bibliography of specific 'how to' titles), but gives a clear oversight of the various possibilities from raising your own fruit and veg or keeping livestock through to providing your own water supply, dealing with your own waste and having a CO2 neutral exsistence. It shows clearly what one can do depending on one's own situation, and how one can go about doing it. Especially useful (and realistic) it gives assessments of items such as cost, skill needed and storage space required for various activities alongside the usual time involved and environmental benefit information. Such aspects are vital to the urban smallholder, who can't just stuff all their bottling and beekeeping equipment in a handy barn or shed!
Even if you don't want to be a smallholder, the book is a good read, and will make you think about things you probably ought to be thinking about, and will most probably lead to a desire to grow something and snatch back a wee bit of control over the food production in your life.
The layout of the book (about A5 in size) is clear, non-glossy and non fussy with very nice illustrations as a background and accompanyment to the text.
Read this book, apply it's suggestions and perhaps Paul's fear that only Ray Mears would survive an energy catastrophe can become a thing of the past!
Highly recommended.
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