This one comes as a surprise to me too.... I never thought about the class struggle before....
www.amazon.co.uk/New-Complete-Book-Self-Sufficiency-Realists/dp/0751364428

John Seymour's Self-Sufficiency Book.

I'll try to make this as brief and to the point as I can….

I grew up on an ordinary housing estate in the South East of England. My dad was a policeman and my mum a kitchen assistant in a catering college. I've already mentioned in this QOTW that I was the first in my family to go into Higher Education and get a degree. It's safe to assume that I came from a lower middle class background - my parents had both been working class but during the Seventies had made the leap to the middle classes.

My father had always wanted to better himself from being a small boy growing up in poverty in rural Scotland and believed that education was the route out. He was always a reader - funnily enough our house when I was growing up held copies of The Communist Manifesto alongside Mein Kampf - so it's been strange to read about both books on the qotw.

This all led to me eventually securing a scholarship at the nearest private Catholic girls' school where I mixed with both local nouveau riche and foreign royalty alike. I was fortunate to be taught by a plethora of women in their fifties and sixties who had fought for feminism and were all unashamed Bluestockings. Our reading lists contained books that were considered to be the very best literature and the school libraries were kept well stocked with classics and 'radical' texts - I read Lady Chatterley's Lover at the age of 15 - borrowed from the Senior Library.

So it's safe to say that when I left school and went onto university I had completed my parents' desired journey firmly into the middle classes.

Within a few short years (and after a disastrous first marriage, gay man, blah, blah, blah…but nice soft furnishings!) I had established myself within my chosen career and, I'd like to think, was reasonably well thought of by all. Then I met a young man who came from a wealthy background - his family were one of the oldest in the county and the name was well known throughout farming circles in the county.

Anyway, to cut a long story very short, dear reader, I married him.

My family were extremely proud as I was marrying into Old Money, a family who had real Class, a family from the Upper Classes.


Except they didn't have any real Class.

The ridiculous thing is that I would like to believe that there is no longer a class system in modern Britain. I'd like to believe that we've got a meritocracy, but I'm also enough of a realist to know that money talks. Sadly it just says Goodbye to me (sorry, couldn't resist that one).

People are people regardless of their background - some are kind and try to be good, some are just plain nasty. Money, in my experience, seems to make little difference.


So, to return to the book…. I embraced the entire notion of Self-Sufficiency. I had chickens, goats, geese, grew all my own vegetables, picked hips and haws, made jam, baked cakes, bread and pies, I even made my own mayonnaise. I lived without central heating, double glazing, gas, mains drainage and on occasion electricity. I had the privilege of seeing the night sky without bad light pollution. A walk at dusk on a summer's evening would involve ducking the bats and listening to the owls. A drive at dusk meant watching out for deer, foxes, rabbits and even the odd wallaby (escaped and now living wild).
A truly idyllic lifestyle.

Except it wasn't.

Never underestimate the power of 'book learnin' ' and the genetic drive to better oneself.
Never forget that Old Money is at the top of the pile and believes that nothing can change that, not even rapidly approaching poverty. To paraphrase the famous sketch from The Frost Report, I will always look down on you because you are lower class.


For me that John Seymour book sums up a great deal more than just how to live with very little money…within the title it embodies my motto for life which I sadly forgot for ten years.

Self-sufficiency.
( chickenlady b3ta's very own Elizabeth Taylor, Wed 21 May 2008, 11:10, 6 replies)

I cannot agree more with your sentiments.
It's nice to be able to share your life with someone but you should never have to rely on that person to help you live your life.
( girlinthehole, Wed 21 May 2008, 11:21, closed)

You're spot on
I know (financially) rich people and poor people, and good and bad people.

There's no correlation between them.

You get monied bastards and skint bastards, just like some people can be nice whether they have millions or brass farthings.
( K2k6 has a proper job these days, Wed 21 May 2008, 11:22, closed)

@ K2k6
Mind you, I'd be much, much nicer if I was a multi-millionaire. I'd also be willing to try it just in the interests of research.
( chickenlady b3ta's very own Elizabeth Taylor, Wed 21 May 2008, 11:25, closed)

@chickenlady
Yup, me too. But I suspect it would be quite difficult to maintain the perceived balance between generosity and flashiness.
( K2k6 has a proper job these days, Wed 21 May 2008, 11:30, closed)

Maybe,
but I'm willing to risk it and give it a try.
( chickenlady b3ta's very own Elizabeth Taylor, Wed 21 May 2008, 11:36, closed)

I love that book
... and I have done ever since I first read it when I was about 11. I've done *something* from every chapter in the intervening 23 years, and later this year I plan on jacking it all in and building myself a house in the middle of nowhere and doing the rest of it. In fact, this afternoon is looking more and more like a good time to start....
(gordonjcp, Wed 21 May 2008, 16:30, closed)