John Seymour (12 June 1914 – 14 September 2004) was a British author and pioneer in the

self-sufficiency Self-sustainability and self-sufficiency are overlapping states of being in which a person or organization needs little or no help from, or interaction with, others. Self-sufficiency entails the self being enough (to fulfill needs), and a self-s ...

movement. In 1976, he wrote ''The Complete Book of Self-Sufficiency''. He had multiple roles as a writer, broadcaster,

environmentalist An environmentalist is a person who is concerned with and/or advocates for the protection of the environment. An environmentalist can be considered a supporter of the goals of the environmental movement, "a political and ethical movement that se ...

, agrarian,

smallholder A smallholding or smallholder is a small farm operating under a small-scale agriculture model. Definitions vary widely for what constitutes a smallholder or small-scale farm, including factors such as size, food production technique or technology ...

and activist; a rebel against:

consumerism Consumerism is a social and economic order that encourages the acquisition of goods and services in ever-increasing amounts. With the Industrial Revolution, but particularly in the 20th century, mass production led to overproduction—the supp ...

industrialisation Industrialisation ( alternatively spelled industrialization) is the period of social and economic change that transforms a human group from an agrarian society into an industrial society. This involves an extensive re-organisation of an econo ...

genetically modified organisms A genetically modified organism (GMO) is any organism whose genetic material has been altered using genetic engineering techniques. The exact definition of a genetically modified organism and what constitutes genetic engineering varies, with ...

, cities, motor cars; an advocate for:

self-reliance "Self-Reliance" is an 1841 essay written by American transcendentalist philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson. It contains the most thorough statement of one of Emerson's recurrent themes: the need for each individual to avoid conformity and false con ...

, personal responsibility, self-sufficiency, conviviality (food, drink, dancing and singing), gardening, caring for the Earth and for the soil.

Early life

Seymour was born in

Hampstead Hampstead () is an area in London, which lies northwest of Charing Cross, and extends from Watling Street, the A5 road (Roman Watling Street) to Hampstead Heath, a large, hilly expanse of parkland. The area forms the northwest part of the Lon ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

; His father was Albert Angus Turbayne, a skilled bookbinder and designer. His parents separated and his mother, Christine Owens, remarried and the family moved to the seaside town of Frinton-on-Sea in north-east

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

. It was however surrounded by agricultural land, and the life led by those on the land and in small boats 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, he studied agriculture at

Wye College bio sciences -> social sciences -> business school Pictures of OLT, Old Hall,Cloister, Parlour --> The College of St Gregory and St Martin at Wye, commonly known as Wye College, was an education and research institution in the village of Wye ...

, In 1934, at the age of 20, he went to

Southern Africa Southern Africa is the southernmost subregion of the African continent, south of the Congo and Tanzania. The physical location is the large part of Africa to the south of the extensive Congo River basin. Southern Africa is home to a number of ...

where he held a succession of jobs: a farmhand and then manager of a sheep farm, a deckhand and skipper of a snoek fishing boat operating from

Namibia Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and ea ...

(then

South-West Africa South West Africa ( af, Suidwes-Afrika; german: Südwestafrika; nl, Zuidwest-Afrika) was a territory under South African administration from 1915 to 1990, after which it became modern-day Namibia. It bordered Angola (Portuguese colony before 1 ...

) along the

Skeleton Coast The Skeleton Coast is the northern part of the Atlantic coast of Namibia and south of Angola from the Kunene River south to the Swakop River, although the name is sometimes used to describe the entire Namib Desert coast. The indigenous San peo ...

, a copper mine worker in

Zambia Zambia (), officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central Africa, Central, Southern Africa, Southern and East Africa, although it is typically referred to as being in Southern Africa at its most cent ...

(then

Northern Rhodesia Northern Rhodesia was a British protectorate in southern Africa, south central Africa, now the independent country of Zambia. It was formed in 1911 by Amalgamation (politics), amalgamating the two earlier protectorates of Barotziland-North-West ...

), and a worker for the government veterinary service. Whilst in Africa he spent some time with

bushmen The San peoples (also Saan), or Bushmen, are members of various Khoe, Tuu, or Kxʼa-speaking indigenous hunter-gatherer cultures that are the first cultures of Southern Africa, and whose territories span Botswana, Namibia, Angola, Zambia, ...

where he gained friendship and an insight into the life of

hunter gatherer A traditional hunter-gatherer or forager is a human living an ancestrally derived lifestyle in which most or all food is obtained by foraging, that is, by gathering food from local sources, especially edible wild plants but also insects, fungi, ...

1939 to 1951

At the start of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

in 1939, Seymour travelled to

Kenya ) , national_anthem = "Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi , ...

where he enlisted in the

Kenya Regiment The Kenya Regiment was a unit of the British Army that recruited primarily from White Kenyans and some Ugandans with Black Kenyan recruits increasingly employed most notably, during the Mau Mau conflict. Formed in 1937, it was disbanded at the o ...

, and was posted to the

King's African Rifles The King's African Rifles (KAR) was a multi-battalion British colonial regiment raised from Britain's various possessions in East Africa from 1902 until independence in the 1960s. It performed both military and internal security functions within ...

. He fought against Italian troops in the Abyssinian Campaign in

Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...

. The regiment was then posted to

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

(formerly Ceylon) and afterwards to

Burma Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

, where allied forces were fighting against

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. For Seymour the war ended on a low note; he expressed his disgust when the Allies used fission bombs on

Hiroshima is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture in Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 1,199,391. The gross domestic product (GDP) in Greater Hiroshima, Hiroshima Urban Employment Area, was US$61.3 billion as of 2010. Kazumi Matsui h ...

and

Nagasaki is the capital and the largest city of Nagasaki Prefecture on the island of Kyushu in Japan. It became the sole port used for trade with the Portuguese and Dutch during the 16th through 19th centuries. The Hidden Christian Sites in the ...

. On his return to Britain after the war Seymour worked for a while on a

Thames sailing barge A Thames sailing barge is a type of commercial sailing boat once common on the River Thames in London. The flat-bottomed barges with a shallow draught and leeboards, were perfectly adapted to the Thames Estuary, with its shallow waters and narr ...

Cambria Cambria is a name for Wales, being the Latinised form of the Welsh name for the country, . The term was not in use during the Roman period (when Wales had not come into existence as a distinct entity). It emerged later, in the medieval period, ...

', skippered by Bob Roberts, operating around the south and east coasts of

, where he picked up the folk songs of a disappearing occupation. After working as a labour officer for the War Agricultural Executive Committee finding agricultural work for German prisoners of war who had still not returned home, he started writing and broadcasting on the

BBC Home Service The BBC Home Service was a national and regional radio station that broadcast from 1939 until 1967, when it was replaced by BBC Radio 4. History 1922–1939: Interwar period Between the early 1920s and the outbreak of World War II, the BBC ...

. He travelled overland to

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

for the BBC, gaining experience of the

Subsistence agriculture Subsistence agriculture occurs when farmers grow food crops to meet the needs of themselves and their families on smallholdings. Subsistence agriculturalists target farm output for survival and for mostly local requirements, with little or no su ...

still common in eastern Europe and Asia. His experiences on that journey led to his first book, ''The Hard Way to India'', published in 1951.

The Smallholdings

Seymour was living aboard a

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

sailing smack when he married Sally Medworth, an

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

potter A potter is someone who makes pottery. Potter may also refer to: Places United States *Potter, originally a section on the Alaska Railroad, currently a neighborhood of Anchorage, Alaska, US * Potter, Arkansas *Potter, Nebraska * Potters, New Je ...

and artist in 1954. In this they travelled around the waterways and rivers of

, journeys later described in ''Sailing through England''. As their first daughter grew older they felt that a land-base would be more suitable. They leased two isolated

cottage A cottage, during Feudalism in England, England's feudal period, was the holding by a cottager (known as a Cotter (farmer), cotter or ''bordar'') of a small house with enough garden to feed a family and in return for the cottage, the cottager ...

s on of land near Orford in

Suffolk Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include Lowes ...

. These 5-acres are still called Seymour's Bit by the current owner. The manner in which they developed

on this

smallholding A smallholding or smallholder is a small farm operating under a small-scale agriculture model. Definitions vary widely for what constitutes a smallholder or small-scale farm, including factors such as size, food production technique or technology ...

is recounted in ''The Fat of the Land'' (1961). At the end of the 1960s, Seymour, along with other radical voices like

Herbert Read Sir Herbert Edward Read, (; 4 December 1893 – 12 June 1968) was an English art historian, poet, literary critic and philosopher, best known for numerous books on art, which included influential volumes on the role of art in education. Read ...

Edward Goldsmith Edward René David Goldsmith (8 November 1928 – 21 August 2009), widely known as Teddy Goldsmith, was an Anglo-French environmentalist, writer and philosopher. He was a member the prominent Goldsmith family. The eldest son of Major Fr ...

Leopold Kohr Leopold Kohr (1909–1994) was an economist, jurist and political scientist known both for his opposition to the "cult of bigness" in social organization and as one of those who inspired the ''Small Is Beautiful'' movement. For almost twenty years, ...

and Fritz Schumacher, provided a stream of articles for the journal '' Resurgence'' edited from 1966 to 1970 by

John Papworth John Papworth (12 December 1921 – 4 July 2020) was an English clergyman, writer and activist against big public and private organizations and for small communities and enterprises. Life and work Born in London in December 1921, Papworth was ...

. In 1964 the family moved to a farm near

Newport, Pembrokeshire Newport ( cy, Trefdraeth, meaning: "town by the beach") is a town, parish, community, electoral ward and ancient port of ''Parrog'', on the Pembrokeshire coast in West Wales at the mouth of the River Nevern ( cy, Afon Nyfer) in the Pembrokeshire ...

. The 1970s saw Seymour's publication rate reach its peak. In 1973 John and Sally wrote ''Self-Sufficiency'' and in 1976 ''The Complete Book of Self-Sufficiency'' was published. Appearing shortly after the publication of E.F. Schumacher's '' Small Is Beautiful: A Study of Economics As If People Mattered'' (1973) and '' The Good Life's'' first showing on British television (1975), the sales of the 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. In addition to self-sufficiency he wrote four guide books in the ''Companion Guide'' series. John also made many television programmes: an early series followed the footsteps of

George Borrow George Henry Borrow (5 July 1803 – 26 July 1881) was an English writer of novels and of travel based on personal experiences in Europe. His travels gave him a close affinity with the Romani people of Europe, who figure strongly in his work. Hi ...

's ''Wild Wales'' (1862). In the early 1980s he spent three years making the BBC series ''Far From Paradise'' (with

Herbert Girardet Herbert Girardet (born 25 May 1943 in Essen) is a German-British writer, filmmaker, lecturer and international consultant. Life and work Herbert Girardet was born in 1943, the son of a publishing executive. After reading history at Tübingen and B ...

) which examined the history of

human impact on the environment Human impact on the environment (or anthropogenic impact) refers to changes to biophysical environments and to ecosystems, biodiversity, and natural resources caused directly or indirectly by humans. Modifying the environment to fit the need ...

. His farm in Wales welcomed visitors seeking guidance on the smallholder's life, a project which continued when he moved to

County Wexford County Wexford ( ga, Contae Loch Garman) is a county in Ireland. It is in the province of Leinster and is part of the Southern Region. Named after the town of Wexford, it was based on the historic Gaelic territory of Hy Kinsella (''Uí Ceinns ...

in Ireland. Here in 1999 he was taken to court for destroying a crop of GM sugar beet. For the last years of his life, he lived back on his old Pembrokeshire farm with his daughter's family. He died there on 14 September 2004 and is buried in the top field in an orchard that he planted.

Legacy

His obituary in the ''Guardian'' said: :"John was as much at home in the humblest house on a hillside, as in the manor house of landed gentry. He was like a force of nature, always willing to listen, always interested in learning about new - or very old - ways of working the land. He was a one-man rebellion against modernism." Herbert Girardet, 2005.

Bibliography

*''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. An autobiography. *''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'' (1973). London: Faber & Faber. (With Sally Seymour.) The original self-sufficiency guide. *''Farming for Self-Sufficiency - Independence on a 5-Acre Farm'' (1973). Schocken Books. (with Sally Seymour) (the American version of 'Self-sufficiency') *''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. * *''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). London: Dorling Kindersley *''John Seymour's Gardening Book'' (1978). London: G.Whizzard: 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.) *''Die Lerchen singen so schön (1982). München: Heyne Science Fiction Bibliothek (English version, unpublished: The Larks They Sang Melodious, novel) *''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 illustrations by Connie Lindquist) *''Retrieved from the Future'' (1996). London: New European, *''Rye from the Water's Edge'' (1996). Rye: Academic Inn Books. (with illustrations by 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) *''The Fat of the Land'' (2008). Carningli Press (With illustrations by Sally Seymour
John Seymour's family website
*''I'm a Stranger Here Myself The Story of a Welsh Farm'' (2011). Carningli Press (cover by Sally Seymour
John Seymour's family website
*''The Fat of the Land (2017).'' Little Toller Books, a beautiful new edition with a foreword by

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall Hugh Christopher Edmund Fearnley-Whittingstall (born 14 January 1965) is an English celebrity chef, television personality, journalist, food writer, and campaigner on food and environmental issues. Fearnley-Whittingstall hosted the ''River C ...

John Seymour's family website

References

External links

John Seymour's family website containing information on John and Sally as well as their extended family
{{DEFAULTSORT:Seymour, John 1914 births 2004 deaths Writers from London People from Hampstead Alumni of Imperial College London English horticulturists Green thinkers Rural community development King's African Rifles officers Smallholders English farmers Kenya Regiment officers British Army personnel of World War II Alumni of Wye College