FARMER and television presenter Jimmy Doherty’s latest book is a helpful, accessible guide to becoming self-sufficient.

Whether your aspirations are for your own herb garden, vegetable patch or allotment, or you dream of raising livestock, this attractive book offers practical advice to get you inspired and on the road to pursuing a sustainable lifestyle, no matter how much space you have.

Full of case studies, DIY projects and recipes, Jimmy shows how achievable self-sufficiency is, and, drawing from his own personal experience of setting up his Suffolk pig farm, points out the mistakes to avoid.

As the book covers a broad range of farming and growing possibilities, for business and home, it is more of an overview of the subject than a reference manual, but there is still more than enough to inspire any budding Tom and Barbaras out there who are after a realistic slice of The Good Life.

Rebecca Taylor