John Seymour Books
JOHN SEYMOUR - born 12 June, 1914 died 14 September, 2004
John
Seymour who lived at Killowen, Dunganstown, New Ross died September 14th, 2004,
at the age of 90. Seymour was best known as the author of The
Complete Book of Self Sufficiency, first published in 1975. He was born
in Essex, England and from his earliest childhood had a creative and independent
mind which was later matched with unusual physical strength and stamina - great
qualities for one of the world's last great adventurers.
Seymour was never deterred by practical difficulties or boring complications - he lived life 110 percent. His mother was an American of Welsh extraction and one of John's earliest dreams was to become a cowboy. After attending school in Switzerland and then completing a formal agricultural training, he left England at the age of 20 to find adventure in Africa. Once there he travelled widely working for the veterinary service; he managed farms, he worked down a copper mine and became skipper of a fishing boat.
Seymour was still in Africa when the second world war began. He joined the King's African Rifles and fought against the Japanese throughout the gruelling Burma war. Of the 40 officers who began that campaign with John only 2 survived to its conclusion. One extraordinary fact about Seymour's time fighting in the jungle was that he kept with him 6 classical records which he could play on a wind-up gramophone - he said it was this that kept him sane.
After the war Seymour returned to England penniless. He lived in a converted trolley bus for several years before moving on to live and work on a Dutch sailing barge. By this time he had got married to his first wife Sally and started writing - mostly travel books.
With a young family to look after and very little money, John and Sally moved into a remote cottage in Suffolk without water or electricity. John describes their early struggles for self sufficiency in what became one his most popular books The Fat of the Land. As time went by Seymour needed more land and when he heard there were derelict farms selling cheaply in west Wales, he managed to obtain a mortgage on a 70 acre farm at Fahongle near Fishguard.
Once in Wales, John got together with publishers Dorling and Kindersley and began work on what was to be their first book - The Complete Book of Self Sufficiency. The book sold several hundred thousand copies all over the world, bringing John's down to earth philosophy to millions and kick starting DK on their road to becoming successful publishers. Dorling and Kindersley continued their relationship with John and in 2002 produced The New Complete Book of Self Sufficiency which, as the dust jacket says, is the definitive guide for dreamers and realists.
In 1980 John decided to hand his farm over to his family and "retired" to County Wexford in Ireland. Penniless once again (for all the book monies went into his farm) John and his young companion Angela Ashe (now Angela Sutherland) found another remote cottage with no electricity or water at Killowen beside the river Barrow. John and Angela put themselves wholeheartedly into building up their 3 acre smallholding while at the same time John continued his writing and campaigning against the destruction of our beautiful planet. John wrote about coming to Ireland in Blessed Isle, One Man's Ireland.
During more than 20 years in Ireland John made many friends but he never shied away from speaking out and taking action against the things he believed were wrong. In 1999 he joined with a group of activists who destroyed genetically "mutilated" sugar beet planted by Monsanto near Arthurstown. The resulting court case achieved worldwide publicity and did much to alert public opinion to the dangers of uncontrolled technology and irresponsible multi-national corporations.
Throughout his life John Seymour wrote more than 40 books and made many films,
TV and radio programmes. His robust wisdom on country matters, self-sufficiency
and the environment has been an inspiration to many thousands of people all
over the world. John's work still continues at Killowen in the School for Self
Sufficiency which he founded with Will and Angela Sutherland in 1993. Students
come from all over the world come to experience the Seymour lifestyle and philosophy
at first hand. Writer, warrior, sailor, farmer, friend - John's rich and varied
life has made a huge impact. As John himself wrote: "I am only one. I can
only do what one can do. But what one can do, I will do!"
[To find out of print books, there's a handy searchbox at the bottom
of this page]
The Hard Way to India (1951). London: Eyre & Spottiswoode.
Boys in the Bundu (1955) London: Harrap. (With illustrations by Sally Seymour.)
Around
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.)
A Good Life: John Seymour An His Self-Sufficiency Legacy by Paul Peacock