Why am I passionate about this?

Aged six, I was first given a tiny piece of garden where I grew radishes and lettuces. I haven’t stopped growing my own food since! Everything about it is good for you and I have been writing about this for many years in various magazines and books. I have always been fascinated with the idea of self-sufficiency and love to read about methods old and new.


I wrote

How to Store Your Garden Produce: The Key to Self-Sufficiency

By Piers Warren, Tessa Pettingell (illustrator),

Book cover of How to Store Your Garden Produce: The Key to Self-Sufficiency

What is my book about?

What can you do with a glut of tomatoes? How do you bottle plums and string onions? What can you…

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The books I picked & why

Book cover of The New Complete Book of Self-Sufficiency: The Classic Guide for Realists and Dreamers

Piers Warren Why did I love this book?

This is the classic book on self-sufficiency that started my interest when I first read it decades ago. John Seymour was the master and teacher and the book is crammed with practical methods with many useful illustrations. Many people I know who are fascinated with the idea of self-sufficiency, and successful practitioners, were initially inspired by this book.

By John Seymour,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The New Complete Book of Self-Sufficiency as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Embrace off-grid green living with this all-encompassing guide to self-sufficiency, your new go-to guide for a more sustainable way of life.

For over 40 years, John Seymour has inspired and motivated thousands of people to make more eco-friendly choices to enrich their lives and live sustainably. Now, his bestselling self-sufficiency book offers step-by-step instructions on all things environment-friendly, from preserving your harvest to living off land, this survival guide has it all. So what are you waiting for?

Dive straight in to discover:

-Detailed step-by-step guide for achieving a self-sufficient lifestyle tailored to your needs and environment
-Encyclopaedic knowledge on…


Book cover of Practical Self-Sufficiency: The Complete Guide to Sustainable Living Today

Piers Warren Why did I love this book?

This is a very comprehensive book by engineer and TV presenter Dick Strawbridge and his son James. Not only does it cover the usual themes of food production but is also littered with many practical engineering projects that can help you lead a self-reliant life - such as methods for producing your own electricity, water. The many excellent photos help guide you through the projects in detail.

By Dick Strawbridge, James Strawbridge,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Practical Self-Sufficiency as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Embrace off-grid green living with this all-encompassing guide to self-sufficiency alongside Dick Strawbridge and his son James.

Introducing Practical Self-Sufficiency, your new go-to survival guide offering step-by-step instructions on all things environment-friendly, jam-packed with tips and tricks for off-grid living to anyone looking to embrace a life of sustainability. So what are you waiting for?

Dive straight in to discover:

-Detailed step-by-step guide covering diverse aspects of off-grid living
-Featuring fully-illustrated step-by-step projecte visually demonstrating how to achieve key aspects of sustainable living from start to finish.
-Encyclopaedic knowledge on a range of eco-friendly tasks such as brewing beer and…


Book cover of Home Farm

Piers Warren Why did I love this book?

The photography in this book is so gorgeous you can just imagine yourself on a sunny smallholding or homestead, tending your crops and looking after your livestock. The instructions are clear and concise from someone who lives the good life. It certainly encouraged me to have a go at various aspects of self-sufficiency that other books didn’t. A great book to dream over while you plan your future.

By Paul Heiney,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Home Farm as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

There is a part in every one of us that wants to be a home farmer: a part that yearns to get back to the earth and to revel in the healthy experiences of growing rearing and making. In Home Farm well-known journalist TV and radio presenter and part-time farmer Paul Heiney shows you how to turn that dream into a reality beginning from the premise that anyone can bring an element of home farming however small into their life. Country Living for All Paul Heiney addresses the needs of both country livers and country dreamers including advice for those…


Book cover of More Scenes from a Smallholding

Piers Warren Why did I love this book?

This is a true story of Chas Griffin’s attempts at living a self-sufficient life on a new smallholding in Wales. Not only is it hilarious but describes all the ups and downs and unexpected disasters yet remains warm and inviting. Rather than just an instruction book, this will show you what it’s really like and possibly give you second thoughts! This was Chas’s first book and so good I went on the read his subsequent titles.

By Chas Griffin,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked More Scenes from a Smallholding as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In 1982 the Griffins left the security of suburbia to grow garlic in West Wales. From the struggle with rurality that ensued grew (organically) the very amusing, and informative, warts-and-all account Scenes From a Smallholding .

Now in this sometimes touching, but always funny sequel, Chas reveals what happened four years after their arrival - when the dream had been well and truly dreamt and they were experiencing some rather rude awakenings. Did they ever achieve the blissful good life? Are they surrounded by organic veg? How have the family coped with their new rural life?

Written with Chas Griffin's…


Book cover of How to Live Off-Grid

Piers Warren Why did I love this book?

I have read this book several times it is so packed with ideas and inspiration. The author travels to a variety of communities, some small, some larger, and investigates how the people are tackling their ambition for self-sufficiency in numerous different ways. If you’re thinking of an alternative off-grid life of self-sufficiency then you will learn just as many ways that may not suit you as those that do. A great education into the realities of this sort of life.

By Nick Rosen,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked How to Live Off-Grid as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Off-grid: a place, building or person without mains water or power.
Static or mobile - in a house or a hut, a boat or a camper van - to live off-grid is all about loosending the ties that bind us to teh fmailiar world of commuting, mortgages, no time and fast food, in order to rediscover our place in the natural world.
Complete with camper van, Nick sets off around the UK to find off-grid heaven and meet people who are living the dream. Along the way he runs into backpackers and businessmen, radical hermits and right-wing survivalists - and…


Explore my book 😀

How to Store Your Garden Produce: The Key to Self-Sufficiency

By Piers Warren, Tessa Pettingell (illustrator),

Book cover of How to Store Your Garden Produce: The Key to Self-Sufficiency

What is my book about?

What can you do with a glut of tomatoes? How do you bottle plums and string onions? What can you do that is interesting with all those huge marrows? How do you keep potatoes through the winter? 

How to Store Your Garden Produce: the key to self-sufficiency is the modern guide to storing and preserving your garden produce, enabling you to eat home-grown goodness all year round. The easy-to-use reference section provides storage and preservation techniques for the majority of plant produce commonly grown in gardens and allotments.

Book cover of The New Complete Book of Self-Sufficiency: The Classic Guide for Realists and Dreamers
Book cover of Practical Self-Sufficiency: The Complete Guide to Sustainable Living Today
Book cover of Home Farm

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Book cover of Tap Dancing on Everest: A Young Doctor's Unlikely Adventure

Mimi Zieman Author Of Tap Dancing on Everest: A Young Doctor's Unlikely Adventure

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What is my book about?

Tap Dancing on Everest, part coming-of-age memoir, part true-survival adventure story, is about a young medical student, the daughter of a Holocaust survivor raised in N.Y.C., who battles self-doubt to serve as the doctor—and only woman—on a remote Everest climb in Tibet.

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By Mimi Zieman,

Why should I read it?

26 authors picked Tap Dancing on Everest as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The plan was outrageous: A small team of four climbers would attempt a new route on the East Face of Mt. Everest, considered the most remote and dangerous side of the mountain, which had only been successfully climbed once before. Unlike the first large team, Mimi Zieman and her team would climb without using supplemental oxygen or porter support. While the unpredictable weather and high altitude of 29,035 feet make climbing Everest perilous in any condition, attempting a new route, with no idea of what obstacles lay ahead, was especially audacious. Team members were expected to push themselves to their…


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