Description
Paul Richardson fled the conventions of his bourgeois upbringing to become a peasant farmer in a village on the edge of Europe. Immersing himself in the rural culture of his remote Spanish community, he learned the traditional arts of animal husbandry and vegetable growing, wine-making and home distilling, and made bread from the rye he sowed on the stone-walled terraces of his 12-acre farm. In prose that shimmers with sensuality and wit, he charts his personal route-map along a road less travelled – from the city back to the land, and from insecurity to fulfilment. He pays tribute to the influences that have shaped his progress – from The Good Life to Henry David Thoreau, from the 1970s pioneers of self-sufficiency to his farming neighbours in the far-flung region of Extremadura. In Paul’s hands off-grid living both becomes an act of rebellion and a form of personal growth.
