John Seymour was born in London, England; his father died when he was very young, his mother remarried and the family moved to Frinton-on-Sea in north-east Essex. A fashionable seaside town with a golf club, a tennis club and a population of 2,000 might seem an unlikely place to develop Seymour’s later philosophy of life. It was however surrounded by agricultural land, where the horse was king; the sea was on his doorstep, there were quiet backwaters where he could learn to sail within a couple of miles of his home. The life lead by those on the land and in small boats would have laid a foundation for his later vision of a simple cottage economy with farming and fishing providing the essentials of life.

After schooling in England and Switzerland Seymour studied agriculture at Wye College, which was then a school of the University of London.

In 1934, at the age of 20, he went to Southern Africa where his wish to experience life took him in through a succession of jobs. In the Karoo as a farmhand and then manager of a sheep farm; from Walvis Bay in South-West Africa (now Namibia) as a deckhand, later as a skipper, on fishing boats; in Northern Rhodesia(now Zambia) in copper mines as a trainee mining engineer; later working for the Northern Rhodesia Veterinary Service as a livestock officer; making a game survey of the Luangwa River valley for the Game Department. Whilst in Africa he spent some time with bushmen where he gained friendship and an insight into the life of hunter gatherers.

1939 to 1951
At the start of World War II in 1939 John Seymour travelled to Kenya where he enlisted in the Kenya Regiment and was posted to the King’s African Rifles, a colonial regiment of the British army with white officers. He fought with them against Italy in the Abyssinian Campaign in Ethiopia. After defeating the Italians the regiment was posted to Sri Lanka (then a British colony called Ceylon) and afterwards to Burma where allied forces were fighting against Japan. For Seymour the war ended on a low note, he expressed his disgust when the Allies used fission bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

On arrival in Britain after the war Seymour worked for a while on a Thames sailing barge, these traditional craft were still operating around the south and east coasts of England, here he picked up the folk songs of a disappearing occupation. After working as a civil servant (labour officer for the Agricultural Committee) finding agricultural work for German prisoners of war (some had still not returned home in 1950) he found an opening into broadcasting when he created a series of short programmes on the BBC Home Service (now Radio 4), speaking on subjects that interested him. He then travelled overland to India for the BBC gaining experience of the subsistence farming still common in eastern Europe and the Asia. His experiences on this journey led to his first book The Hard Way to India, published in 1951.

The Smallholdings
Seymour was living aboard a Dutch sailing smack when he married Sally Medworth, an Australian potter and artist, in 1954. In this they travelled around the waterways and rivers of England and Holland, journeys later described in Sailing through England. As their first daughter grew older they felt that a landbase would be more suitable. They leased two isolated cottages on 5 acres (2 hectares) of land near Orford in Suffolk. The manner in which they fell into self-sufficiency on this smallholding is recounted in The Fat of the Land (1961).

At the beginning of the 1970s the family moved to a farm near Newport in Pembrokeshire. This decade saw Seymour’s publication rate reach a maximum, In 1976 The Complete Book of Self-Sufficiency was published, a guide for real and dreaming downshifters. Published shortly after E. F. Schumacher’s Small is Beautiful – a study of economics as if people mattered (1973) and, more mundanely, The Good Life’s first showing on British television (1975), the sales of the new book exceeded all expectations. It was also set to establish the reputation of two young publishers, Christopher Dorling and Peter Kindersley who had commissioned and edited the work. His writing was not restricted to self-sufficiency: he wrote four guide books in the Companion Guide series and was now being asked to speak of his vision at conferences.

In the 1970s and 1980s he was also making television programmes: an early series followed the footsteps of George Borrow’s Wild Wales (1862), later he spent three years making the BBC series Far From Paradise (with Herbert Girardet) which examined the history of human impact on the environment.

His farm in Wales welcomed visitors seeking guidance on the smallholders life a project which expanded to the School for Self-Sufficiency when he moved to County Wexford in Ireland during the 1980s. Here in 1999 he was taken to court for damaging a crop of GM sugar beet.

His Books
The Hard Way to India (1951). London: Eyre & Spottiswoode.
Boys in the Bundu (1955) London: Harrap. (With illustrations by Sally Seymour.)
Round About India (1955). London: Eyre & Spottiswoode.
One Man’s Africa (1956). London: Eyre & Spottiswoode.
Sailing Through England (1956). London: Eyre & Spottiswoode. (With illustrations by Sally Seymour.)
The Fat of the Land (1961). London: Faber & Faber. (With illustrations by Sally Seymour.)
On My Own Terms (1963). London: Faber & Faber.
Willynilly to the Baltic (1965). Edinburgh: William Blackwood & Sons.
Voyage into England (1966). Newton Abbott: David & Charles.
The Companion Guide to East Anglia (1970). London: Collins.
About Pembrokeshire (1971). TJ Whalley.
The Book of Boswell – autobiography of a gypsy (1970). London: Gollancz. (Author: Silvester Gordon Boswell, Ed. John Seymour.)
Self-Sufficiency (1970). London: Faber & Faber. (With Sally Seymour.)
The Companion Guide to the Coast of South-West England (1974). London: Collins.
The Companion Guide to the Coast of North-East England (1974). London: Collins.
The Companion Guide to the Coast of South-East England (1975). London: Collins.
The Complete Book of Self-Sufficiency (1976). London: Faber & Faber.
Bring Me My Bow (1977). London: Turnstone Books.
Keep It Simple (1977). Pant Mawr: Black Pig Press.
The Countryside Explained (1977). London: Faber & Faber. (With illustrations by Sally Seymour.)
I’m A Stranger Here Myself – the story of a Welsh farm (1978). London: Faber & Faber. (With illustrations by Sally Seymour.)
The Self-Sufficient Gardener (1978). Londoon: Dorling Kindersley
John Seymour’s Gardening Book (1978). London: G.Whizzard Publications Ltd: Distributed by Deutsch,
Gardener’s Delight (1978). London: Michael Joseph.
Getting It Together – a guide for new settlers (1980). London: Michael Joseph.
The Lore of the Land (1982). Weybridge: Whittet. (With illustrations by Sally Seymour.)
The Woodlander (1983). London: Sidgwick & Jackson. (With illustrations by Sally Seymour.)
The Smallholder (1983). London: Sidgwick & Jackson. (With illustrations by Sally Seymour.)
The Shepherd (1983). London: Sidgwick & Jackson. (With illustrations by Sally Seymour.)
The Forgotten Arts (1984). London: Dorling Kindersley.
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). London: Dorling Kindersley. (with Herbert Girardet.)
The Forgotten Household Crafts (1987). London: Dorling Kindersley.
England Revisited – a countryman’s nostalgic journey (1988). London: Dorling Kindersley.
The Ultimate Heresy (1989). Bideford: Green Books.
Changing Lifestyles – living as though the world mattered (1991). London: Gollancz.
Rural Life – pictures from the past (1991). London: Collins & Brown
Blessed Isle – one man’s Ireland (1992). London: Collins.
Seymour’s Seamarks (1995). Rye: Academic Inn Books. (with Connie Lindquist)
Retrieved from the Future (1996). London: New European,
Rye from the Water’s Edge (1996). Rye: Academic Inn Books. (with Connie Lindquist)
Playing It For Laughs – a book of doggerel (1999). San Francisco: Metanoia Press. (with illustrations by Kate Seymour)
The Forgotten Arts And Crafts (2001). London: Dorling Kindersley.
The New Complete Book of Self-Sufficiency (2002). London: Dorling Kindersley. (with Will Sutherland.)
The Self-Sufficient Life and How to Live It (2003). London: Dorling Kindersley. (with Will Sutherland.)

To find books by John Seymour please click here>>>

Printing Statement
Most publishers are helpful when it comes this and clearly state: ‘‘ – ‘Third Impression’ ‘Reprinted in…’ etc etc. Clearly any mention of these terms indicates a reprint. However things are often not so easy and a book can clearly state ‘‘ or ‘first printed’ without mention of another edition or date and still be a reprint.
Publishers often reprinted using the same plates as the first, sometimes for years afterwards.

Undated Books
If a book shows no dates at all then the balance of probability suggests it more likely to be a later edition. However, as usual, there are many exceptions. Specialised bibliographies would need to be consulted before any final decision can be made. A very useful resource in recent years is the online access to the world’s reference libraries which will supply you with a publication date, and in many cases indicate whether or not that book was dated or not.

Printers Key – Number Line
A relatively new method of indicating edition status has been adopted by many publishers, that being the printers key, often referred to as the number line. This method shows a line of numbers on the copyright page, usually between 10 and 1. The sequence of the numbers varies between publishers but the basic principal remains the same (apart from a few exceptions) a first issue-edition-impression requires the presence of the number 1.For example 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 indicates a first printing. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 would indicate a second printing and so forth.

Dust Wrappers – Jackets
To make life yet more difficult as well as ascertaining that status of your book you also need to do the same for the dustwrapper or jacket. As mentioned previously reprints can appear the same as firsts with differences shown only on the dw. Always check for reviews or for titles post dating the book. The published price can often be an issue when it comes to later or so called cheap editions. There are genuine issue points on some jackets that determine the printing of the book but the biggest potential problem is when later state wrappers find their way onto first edition books. This can usually be determined by rudimentary checks though specialised bibliographies may need to be consulted

Book Club Editions
Book club editions are a source of great confusion to many and are regularly mis-sold as , usually out of ignorance but occasionally not ! For collectors of UK first editions this is less of a problem than it is for collectors of American editions. UK book clubs are usually clearly stated as such, there is an absence of original publisher logos, unpriced jackets etc. Very often the books are much smaller in size or indeed a completely different format.
Things are very much more complex when it comes to American firsts when a book may appear exactly the same as a first to the uninitiated. The complexities and variations are so great that it goes well beyond the scope of this article to give a definitive guide. There are some excellent publications however that can aid the collector with specific issue points and we would recommend referring to them. The other safeguard is to buy from an established and reputable dealer who can eliminate these concerns.

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We also publish ebooks so if you are the copyright holder send us an email – contact us – with an outline of the book.

To paraphrase Oscar Wilde, why bother to write if not for publication? But writing can be a lonely task, made bearable by the thought that others will enjoy reading what has been written, but that means finding a publisher.

Being discovered by a publisher, seeing your book launched and signing copies for adoring readers is perhaps every writers fantasy. And it can happen. But for every writer realising the fantasy, there are thousands who are not so lucky. For them, persistence may ultimately pay as they deal with rejection after rejection. Of course, they can pay to have their book published, perhaps parting with thousands of pounds with, realistically, little or no chance of ever recovering the outlay.

Electronic publishing gives writer another option and one with a very real chance of making money. Although we take works of any length, lets take for example, a book of 80,000 to 100,000 words – 200 or so pages. We have to devote time to reading and checking the manuscript as well as actually putting the work on our website, however unlike others if the book is suitable for onetoremember we do not make a charge. If it is suitable we then agree a selling price with the author which would usually be rather less than the price of an equivalent paperback book. Lets say we agree on £6. We pay a royalty to you, the author, of 75% of that price so that every time someone buys your book you earn £4.50 and we keep £1.50 to cover the cost of processing the payment. So when just 100 copies have been bought, you will have earned £450. Remember, the website is accessible worldwide, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year and your book will never be ‘out of print’. Some of our authors see electronic publication of their book on this site as an end in itself, and several have more than one title available, while others see it as a means of showcasing their work in the hope of attracting a conventional publisher. Either way, we do everything we can to help to achieve our authors aims. We are in contact with the press, both local and national, in the United Kingdom and Overseas and are often successful in gaining editorial coverage of our activities and those of our authors. Reviews of the books we have on the site are submitted regularly for publication. All this activity is intended to do just one thing – to develop interest in our books, increasing their sales and, as a result, the income paid to our authors. We can accept your manuscript on floppy disk, on CD (preferably in Microsoft Word) or on A4 paper as long as it is typed preferably on one side only. It need not be double spaced nor in any particular font. We look forward to hearing from you.

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John Seymour

For books by John Seymour click here

John Seymour

John Seymour (12 June 1914 – 14 September 2004) was an influential figure in the self-sufficiency movement. Precise categorisation is difficult: he was a writer, broadcaster, environmentalist, smallholder and activist; a rebel against: consumerisation, industrialisation, genetically modified organisms, cities, motor cars; and an advocate for: self-reliance, personal responsibility, self-sufficiency, conviviality (food, drink, dancing and singing), gardening, caring for the Earth and for the soil.

John Seymour was born in London, England; his father died when he was very young, his mother remarried and the family moved to Frinton-on-Sea in north-east Essex. A fashionable seaside town with a golf club, a tennis club and a population of 2,000 might seem an unlikely place to develop Seymour’s later philosophy of life. It was however surrounded by agricultural land, where the horse was king; the sea was on his doorstep, there were quiet backwaters where he could learn to sail within a couple of miles of his home. The life lead by those on the land and in small boats would have laid a foundation for his later vision of a simple cottage economy with farming and fishing providing the essentials of life.

After schooling in England and Switzerland Seymour studied agriculture at Wye College, which was then a school of the University of London.

In 1934, at the age of 20, he went to Southern Africa where his wish to experience life took him in through a succession of jobs. In the Karoo as a farmhand and then manager of a sheep farm; from Walvis Bay in South-West Africa (now Namibia) as a deckhand, later as a skipper, on fishing boats; in Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia) in copper mines as a trainee mining engineer; later working for the Northern Rhodesia Veterinary Service as a livestock officer; making a game survey of the Luangwa River valley for the Game Department. Whilst in Africa he spent some time with bushmen where he gained friendship and an insight into the life of hunter gatherers.

1939 to 1951

At the start of World War II in 1939 John Seymour travelled to Kenya where he enlisted in the Kenya Regiment and was posted to the King’s African Rifles, a colonial regiment of the British army with white officers. He fought with them against Italy in the Abyssinian Campaign in Ethiopia. After defeating the Italians the regiment was posted to Sri Lanka (then a British colony called Ceylon) and afterwards to Burma where allied forces were fighting against Japan. For Seymour the war ended on a low note, he expressed his disgust when the Allies used fission bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

John Seymour

On arrival in Britain after the war Seymour worked for a while on a Thames sailing barge, these traditional craft were still operating around the south and east coasts of England, here he picked up the folk songs of a disappearing occupation. After working as a civil servant (labour officer for the Agricultural Committee) finding agricultural work for German prisoners of war (some had still not returned home in 1950) he found an opening into broadcasting when he created a series of short programmes on the BBC Home Service (now Radio 4), speaking on subjects that interested him. He then travelled overland to India for the BBC gaining experience of the subsistence farming still common in eastern Europe and the Asia. His experiences on this journey led to his first book The Hard Way to India, published in 1951.

The Smallholdings

Seymour was living aboard a Dutch sailing smack when he married Sally Medworth, an Australian potter and artist, in 1954. In this they travelled around the waterways and rivers of England and Holland, journeys later described in Sailing through England. As their first daughter grew older they felt that a landbase would be more suitable. They leased two isolated cottages on 5 acres (2 hectares) of land near Orford in Suffolk. The manner in which they fell into self-sufficiency on this smallholding is recounted in The Fat of the Land (1961).

At the beginning of the 1970s the family moved to a farm near Newport in Pembrokeshire. This decade saw Seymour’s publication rate reach a maximum, In 1976 The Complete Book of Self-Sufficiency was published, a guide for real and dreaming downshifters. Published shortly after E. F. Schumacher’s Small is Beautiful – a study of economics as if people mattered (1973) and, more mundanely, The Good Life’s first showing on British television (1975), the sales of the new book exceeded all expectations. It was also set to establish the reputation of two young publishers, Christopher Dorling and Peter Kindersley who had commissioned and edited the work. His writing was not restricted to self-sufficiency: he wrote four guide books in the Companion Guide series and was now being asked to speak of his vision at conferences.

In the 1970s and 1980s he was also making television programmes: an early series followed the footsteps of George Borrow’s Wild Wales (1862), later he spent three years making the BBC series Far From Paradise (with Herbert Girardet) which examined the history of human impact on the environment.

His farm in Wales welcomed visitors seeking guidance on the smallholders life a project which expanded to the School for Self-Sufficiency when he moved to County Wexford in Ireland during the 1980s. Here in 1999 he was taken to court for damaging a crop of GM sugar beet.

Internationally Accepted Definitions

Very Fine or Mint – VF or M

Fine – F

Very Good – VG

Good – G

Poor – P

Some Other Points

Printing Statement
Most publishers are helpful when it comes this and clearly state: ‘Second Edition’ – ‘Third Impression’ ‘Reprinted in…’ etc etc. Clearly any mention of these terms indicates a reprint. However things are often not so easy and a book can clearly state ‘first edition’ or ‘first printed’ without mention of another edition or date and still be a reprint.
Publishers often reprinted using the same plates as the first, sometimes for years afterwards.

Undated Books
If a book shows no dates at all then the balance of probability suggests it more likely to be a later edition. However, as usual, there are many exceptions. Specialised bibliographies would need to be consulted before any final decision can be made. A very useful resource in recent years is the online access to the world’s reference libraries which will supply you with a publication date, and in many cases indicate whether or not that book was dated or not.

Printers Key – Number Line
A relatively new method of indicating edition status has been adopted by many publishers, that being the printers key, often referred to as the number line. This method shows a line of numbers on the copyright page, usually between 10 and 1. The sequence of the numbers varies between publishers but the basic principal remains the same (apart from a few exceptions) a first issue-edition-impression requires the presence of the number 1.For example 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 indicates a first printing. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 would indicate a second printing and so forth.

Dust Wrappers – Jackets
To make life yet more difficult as well as ascertaining that status of your book you also need to do the same for the dustwrapper or jacket. As mentioned previously reprints can appear the same as firsts with differences shown only on the dw. Always check for reviews or for titles post dating the book. The published price can often be an issue when it comes to later or so called cheap editions. There are genuine issue points on some jackets that determine the printing of the book but the biggest potential problem is when later state wrappers find their way onto first edition books. This can usually be determined by rudimentary checks though specialised bibliographies may need to be consulted

Book Club Editions
Book club editions are a source of great confusion to many and are regularly mis-sold as first editions, usually out of ignorance but occasionally not ! For collectors of UK first editions this is less of a problem than it is for collectors of American editions. UK book clubs are usually clearly stated as such, there is an absence of original publisher logos, unpriced jackets etc. Very often the books are much smaller in size or indeed a completely different format.
Things are very much more complex when it comes to American firsts when a book may appear exactly the same as a first to the uninitiated. The complexities and variations are so great that it goes well beyond the scope of this article to give a definitive guide. There are some excellent publications however that can aid the collector with specific issue points and we would recommend referring to them. The other safeguard is to buy from an established and reputable dealer who can eliminate these concerns.

OnetoRemember is a sustainable living book and ebook shop that uses litecommerce software and aims to serve customers acroos the world. Books are both new and used on a range of subjects including renewable energy, gardening, green politics and sustainable architecture.

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