Adams, Douglas and Mark Carwardine, Last Chance to See (London: Pan, 1991) Poignant, wonderful pics of poisonous Komodo dragon, rhinos, gorillas, very rare parrot.

Bahro, Rudolf, Avoiding Social and Ecological Disaster: The Politics of World Transformation, trans. by David Clarke (Bath: Gateway, 1984 (1987 in German)) ‘[A] masterpiece of spiritual-political insight’ according to blurb. Our civilisation has created a Megamachine, Bahro says, leading to self-annihilation. Ex-communist turned Green. (Copy bristling with post-it notes.) In Outline of Theses of Book, says we have to reduce our impact to what it was 100 years ago – not enough? Very moralistic, lots on spirituality/salvation. Refers to E P Thompson 1980 essay on exterminism’ (p.19). No practicalities, nothing on land, farming, communities.

Bahuguna, Sunder Lal, Echoes from the Hills: Save the Himalayan Eco-system: A Call to Humanity (Uttar Pradesh: Chipko Information Centre, [1992]) Describes vulnerability of Himalayan ecosystem, land degradation in India, hopes from Rio summit, Declaration of Save Himalaya movement.

Bartimius, Paula, Eating with the Season: How to Achieve Health and Vitality by Eating in Harmony with Nature (Shaftsbury, Dorset: Element, 1998) Food basics then by seasons. Mainly vegan, avoids cow’s milk dairy, goat’s milk dairy if cannot cut out milky foods, or soya, rice and oat milk, pp.35-6.

Beeston, Michael, 101 Ways to Make the Most of Your Garden (London: Dickens, 1967) Month by month guide for conventional garden.

Black, Maggie, Food & Cooking in Medieval Britain: History & Recipes (English Heritage, 1985) 47pp. Superb illustrations from the period.

Brown, O. Phelps, The Complete Herbalist: or, the People Their Own Physicians by the use of Nature’s Remedies, describing the Great Curative Properties Found in the HerbalKingdom. A New and Plain System of Hygienic Principles, together with Comprehensive Essays on Sexual Philosophy, Marriage, Divorce &c. (London: Hale, 1882)

Brundtland, Gro Harlem, Our Common Future: World Commission on Environment and Development (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987) In the blurb it says most of the decision makers will be dead before the consequences of global warming etc. will be suffered by the planet! Didn’t this report give us the term ‘sustainable development’? (Chapter 2)

Carson, Rachel, Silent Spring (Harmonsworth, Middx: Penguin, 1965 (1962)) Maybe this awakened and alarmed the world, but not enough. Most memorable part is Chapter 1: A Fable for Tomorrow and the line ‘The people had done it themselves’. (I always say ‘to themselves’.) (pp.21-2)

Chaitow, Leon, Stone Age Diet: The Natural Way to Eat (London: Optima, 1987) Back cover says our Stone Age ancestors were stronger and healthier than us, also our physical evolution still in that age so their diet natural to us. Includes recipes. Paleolithic diet 400mg Vitamin C daily, modern 40-60, our bodies can’t make it. (pp.82-3) We heat and spice food to reflect better flavour of ancestors’ food.

Commoner, Barry, Science and Survival (New York: Viking, 1967) [copy in comment to Maddy / WiC]

Dogra, Bharat, Forests, Dams and Survival in Tehri Garhwal (New Delhi: Dogra, 1992) Threats to survival of hill villages dependent on forests in Western Himalayan region.

Dogra, Bharat, The Debate on Large Dams (New Delhi: Dogra, 1992) How the euphoria at ‘temples of modern India’ changed to protests at social and ecological effects, promised benefits not realised, risks of failure and distortions in the wider development path.

Duncalf, William G., The Guinness Book of Plant Facts and Feats (Enfield, Middx.: Guinness, 1976) How plants work and evolved, feed and poison, and amaze.

Eley, Geoffrey, 101 Wild Plants for the Kitchen (Wakefield, West Yorkshire, 1977) Intro mentions debt to early literature on plants, from 16C herbals on. Includes ground elder!

Fern, Ken, Plants For A Future: Edible and Useful Plants for a Healthier World (Clanfield, Hampshire: Permanent Publications, 1997) The bible for those interested in experimenting in plants for food and other uses; uses Latin names. Accompanies the PFAF database of over 7000 plants, and the experimental plot in Penpol, Cornwall.

Foth, Henry D., Fundamentals of Soil Science, Sixth Edition (New York: Wiley, 1978 (1958)) Soil concepts, uses and properties, soil resources, threats and conservation.

Goldsmith, James, The 1992 Schumacher Lecture: Measurement or Understanding (video tape) Impressive lecture, received as hypocrisy by protesters at his activities in South America.

Gradwohl, Judith and Russell Greenberg, Saving the Tropical Forests (London: Earthscan, 1988) Product of conference at Smithsonian in 1985. Forests being destroyed by poverty and greed, so no good looking to reason and logic for solutions. Describes case studies and research. Very practical and authoritative.

Gribben, John, Future Weather: Carbon Dioxide, Climate and the Greenhouse Effect (sub-title on cover: The Causes and Effects of Climatic Change) (Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin, 1982) Despite age, good overview of what makes climate, ending with man made greenhouse effect warning.

Hammond, J.L. and Barbara Hammond, The Village Labourer, 1760-1882: A Study in the Government of England Before the Reform Bill (London: Longmans, 1911) Brings the Enclosures to life in all their iniquity and tragedy.

Hart, Robert, The Forest Garden (London: Institute for Social Inventions, 1991) Booklet, 24pp. Extract from Guardian on back cover – ‘model ... could be repeated even in a town garden’. Intro. describes fg as his ‘self-sufficiency scheme’ and ‘self-perpetuating’ and ‘self-fertilising’.

Hassall, Arthur, A History of Europe Volume III, The Balance of Power, the French Revolution and Napoleon, the Nineteenth Century and After, 1740-1914 (London: Rivingtons, 1928) Described as ‘A Class Book of English History’, Terse style and structured format. No pictures.

Holt, Geraldene, The Gourmet Garden: The Fruits of the Garden Transported to the Table (London: Pavilion, 1990) Pictorial tour of eight British grand gardens with recipes, which don’t use only the produce.

Johnson, Stewart, Feverfew: A Traditional Herbal Remedy for Migraine and Arthritis (London: Sheldon, 1984) From ‘Overcoming Common Problems’ series, by academic doctor and very medical, despite herbal remedy. Was this my mother’s?

Khan, S.I., Herbs from Your Garden: How to Grow and Use Them (Wellingborough, Northamptonshire: Thorsons, 1984 (1979)) Tiny book, 56 pp. Propagation needs bought compost. Refers to small scale options, down to pots on window ledges. Alphabetic long list and short one with more details growing and re uses.

Lovelock, J.E., Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987 (1979)) On the idea that the earth is alive, a belief first expressed as science by James Hutton, father of Geology, in 1785: study the Earth through physiology, and Vernadsky introduced concept of biosphere.

Lovelock, James, The Ages of Gaia: A Biography of our Living Earth (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988) How species and their environment evolve as a single system, still by natural selection. Concerned not with threats to human life but with damage affecting the health of the Earth, need a profession of planetary medicine. Chapter on ‘God and Gaia’; most correspondence received was on religious implications of the theory. ‘Gaia is a religious as well as a scientific concept.’ (p.206)

Mabey, Richard, Food for Free: A Guide to the Edible Wild Plants of Britain (Glasgow: Collins, 1972) Intro talks of modern attitude that wild foods are unnatural. Cultivated plant foods once wild. Lot of tiny drawings, some colour plates, identification not easy from these.

Meadows, Donella H., Dennis L. Meadows, Jorgen Randers, William W Behrens III, The Limits to Growth: A Report for the Club of Rome’s Project on the Predicament of Mankind (London: Pan, 1974) From 1970 MIT study of effects of growth. Diagrams and lots of graphs, lots of post-its in eg ‘The World Model’.

Mee, Arthur, ed., The King’s England, Norfolk: Green Pastures and Still Waters (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1940) Alphabetical town by town, mainly on churches, nice details like bosses in roof, p.297.

Mowat, R.B., A History of Europe and the Modern World 1492-1928 (Oxford: Clarendon, 1929) Oh, to know all this! Fascinating illustrations. Lists of popes and presidents, royal genealogies and chronology in back.

O’Hare, Greg, Soils, Vegetation, Ecosystems: Conceptual Frameworks in Geography (Edinburgh: Oliver & Boyd, 1988) Thorough ‘A’ level plus textbook.

Paterson, Allen, ed., Reader’s Digest Guide to Creative Gardening (London: Reader’s Digest, 1984) A guide to the best plants and how to use them. It’s about flowers!

Pratt, Simon, compiler, The Permaculture Plot 1994/5: The Guide to Permaculture in Britain (Clanfield, Hampshire: Permanent, 1994) Preface says no. of plots in guide was 7 in 1985, 33 in prev edn., 52 in this.

Quennell, Marjorie & C.H.B., A History of Everyday Things in England, Volume III, 1733 to 1851 (London: Batsford, 1933) For ‘young readers’. Emphasis on farming for food and textiles, good illustrations of all kinds. Complications and rapid pace of change at industrial revolution; must be ‘very charitable’ towards the latter.

Redclift, Michael, Sustainable Development: Exploring the Contradictions (London: Methuen, 1987) Degradation of environment not ‘natural’ but linked to economic and political structures. We are recreating nature to be free of environmental constraints, and destroying it.

Renfrew, Jane, Food & Cooking in Prehistoric Britain: History & Recipes (English Heritage, 1985) 44pp. Intriguing slant on history of food.

Russell, L.R. Ltd., [Catalogue] Autumn 1963 Spring 1964 (Windlesham, Surrey) Has order by my father inside.

Seebohm, Frederick, The English Village Community Examined in its Relations to the Manorial and Tribal Systems and to the Common or Open Field System of Husbandry: An Essay in Economic History, Third Edition (London: Longmans, 1884) Superb exploration of the society we have lost, recognising its importance to economics and politics today.

Seymour, John and Herbert Girardet, Far from Paradise: The Story of Man’s Impact on the Environment (London: BBC, 1986) Signed by author. Has Topsoil and Civilisation in Bibliography and starts from there. Some grim pictures. Finishes by advocating organic alternative.

Thun, Maria, Gardening for Life – The Biodynamic Way: A Practical Introduction to a New Art of Gardening, Sowing, Planting, Harvesting (Stroud: Hawthorne, 1999) Organic plus planetary influences. Useful properties of nettles, pp.45-7, used as compost preparation.

Tierra, Michael, The Way of Herbs (Santa Cruz, California: Unity, 1980) Herbs for healing.

Underwood, Peter, Ghosts of Cornwall (Bodmin, Cornwall: Bossiney, 1983) Author is President of Ghost Club – intriguing bits of local culture.

Vaughan, J.G. & C.A. Geissler, The New Oxford Book of Food Plants (Oxford: OUP, 1997) Foreword by David Bellamy on debt we owe to indigenous people who, over 10,000 years, ‘selected, bred and cultivated the plants which feed us all’ and on loss of both cultivated varieties and of the ‘weed’ species they came from. Useful introduction. Lovely illustrations.

Watkins, David, Urban Permaculture: A Practical Handbook for Sustainable Living (Clanfield, Hampshire: Permanent, 1993) Love the front cover pic with food growing on all surfaces. Intro emphasises land use aspect of pc, and richer life. Puts people and houses before food, but good when it gets to growing and gardens.

Watkins, Meike & David, The Concise Book of Organic Growing and Small Livestock ( Reigate: Watkins, [n.d.]) About setting up a smallholding and more than we’d want to know on the small livestock.

Wilson, Peter J., The Domestication of the Human Species (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1988) Human evolution: the effect of settling in built environment on human psychology and social relations. (Bristling with post-its.) Aims to look at domesticated societies forward from Paleolithic point of view rather than backwards from urban society. Major modification was ability to pay attention. Not an ethnographic study. Not concerned with origins, routes of evolution in different parts of the world, but with why people built what they built, in general, to establish the theme.