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A meditation on why life has been a dreadful mistake ever since the Reformation brought us paid jobs and the work ethic . . . Brave Old World is hugely inspiring (New Statesman )
One of those enthusiasts whose enthusiasm is hard to resist . . . Bizarre yet always beguiling (Daily Mail )
A delightful read . . . Share in the exuberant joys and comic misfortunes of an eccentric who has made up his mind about the existence he wants to lead, and has gone ahead and lived it (Mail on Sunday )
He writes in such a charmingly old-fashioned way . . . Utterly endearing . . . Packed with good advice (The Lady )
One of those enthusiasts whose enthusiasm is hard to resist . . . Bizarre yet always beguiling (Daily Mail )
A delightful read . . . Share in the exuberant joys and comic misfortunes of an eccentric who has made up his mind about the existence he wants to lead, and has gone ahead and lived it (Mail on Sunday )
He writes in such a charmingly old-fashioned way . . . Utterly endearing . . . Packed with good advice (The Lady )
Product Description
Drawing on the wisdom of an eclectic range of thinkers and writers, on medieval calendars and manorial records, and, as ever, on Tom's own honestly recounted and frequently imperfect attempts to travel the road to self-sufficiency, Brave Old World is designed to give us all hope. Why, he asks, shouldn't we return to the ideals of a pre-capitalist, pre-Puritan, pre-consumerist world of feasting, dancing, horse-riding, wood-chopping, fire-laying, poultry-rearing, bartering, bread-baking and bee-keeping?
From January to December, Brave Old World charts the progress of a year in pursuit of the pleasures of the past, taking seriously - though not without much incidental comedy - G.K. Chesterton's exhortation, 'We must go back to freedom or forward to slavery'.
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14 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Tom's new book can be taken as the fourth in a sequence. 'How To Be Idle' acted as a cold flannel in the face of workaday clock-in-clock-out attitudes to time. 'How To Be Free' was a pail of ice water in the same vein, this time waking us to new angles on supposedly immutable burdens such as debt and guilt. 'The Idle Parent' hit on those volumes' easiness and independence of spirit, crafting them into a glider that clipped against the trend to helicopter parenting.
Now, in 'Brave Old World', Tom addresses a tacit conundrum that some have found in those texts. That is, how to provide for one's family while keeping a radical vigilance (and a big, knobbly stick out) for the greed-led cancers he diagnosed previously.
He succeeds, but not by presenting an exhaustive guide to self-sufficiency either in terms of husbandry or dogma. Instead, he offers detailed pointers in practical matters such as keeping bees, and emphasizes some key attitudinal graces (e.g., the value of not being too hard on ourselves if we sometimes buy, rather than bake, loaves of bread.)
What comes across -- perhaps more helpful than any comprehensive tome -- is a freeing combination of earthy 'how-to' and forgiving self-care. Sometimes these two become one, such as the recommendation that enjoying a few beers is a good element of an evening spent at work in the kitchen.
Two suggestions bestride the hands-on strand of the book: plan ahead, and know your limitations.
For me, perhaps the sweetest aspect of the book is when Tom lets his earlier, often very funny, stridency, emerge in the midst of chapters in which his hands are in the soil. Example: his search for a good stove leads to an annoyance at how the commercial use of the Internet has turned good old-fashioned "asking around" in the village into a profit-skimming marketplace. The rise of the middle-man, he says, is a fair summary of the last half-millennium of capitalism.
I would have been just as happy with 600 pages as with 300 pages, not least because I suspect that Tom has a lot more to say: about, for instance, his experiences outside of his home (e.g., walking in the country, visiting the pub) or family conversations.
The sole way in which I'd like 'Brave Old World' to have been a little different probably says more about me than about Tom, and is also an implied compliment. That is, while I value his many quotations of other writers, they spatially break up the text for me a shade too much. I like reading slabs of Tom. But I look forward to paying even more attention to his citations when I re-read: they are apt and beautiful.
In 'Brave Old World', Tom seems to be saying: take the kitchen-garden pointers you want, think about the informing ideas while you have a glass of wine, then shape your own life based on what you want and can manage. And by extension, to use an actual (and my favorite) Tom quote:
"'It's all right for some', people will grumble. Then make it all right for you.
Now, in 'Brave Old World', Tom addresses a tacit conundrum that some have found in those texts. That is, how to provide for one's family while keeping a radical vigilance (and a big, knobbly stick out) for the greed-led cancers he diagnosed previously.
He succeeds, but not by presenting an exhaustive guide to self-sufficiency either in terms of husbandry or dogma. Instead, he offers detailed pointers in practical matters such as keeping bees, and emphasizes some key attitudinal graces (e.g., the value of not being too hard on ourselves if we sometimes buy, rather than bake, loaves of bread.)
What comes across -- perhaps more helpful than any comprehensive tome -- is a freeing combination of earthy 'how-to' and forgiving self-care. Sometimes these two become one, such as the recommendation that enjoying a few beers is a good element of an evening spent at work in the kitchen.
Two suggestions bestride the hands-on strand of the book: plan ahead, and know your limitations.
For me, perhaps the sweetest aspect of the book is when Tom lets his earlier, often very funny, stridency, emerge in the midst of chapters in which his hands are in the soil. Example: his search for a good stove leads to an annoyance at how the commercial use of the Internet has turned good old-fashioned "asking around" in the village into a profit-skimming marketplace. The rise of the middle-man, he says, is a fair summary of the last half-millennium of capitalism.
I would have been just as happy with 600 pages as with 300 pages, not least because I suspect that Tom has a lot more to say: about, for instance, his experiences outside of his home (e.g., walking in the country, visiting the pub) or family conversations.
The sole way in which I'd like 'Brave Old World' to have been a little different probably says more about me than about Tom, and is also an implied compliment. That is, while I value his many quotations of other writers, they spatially break up the text for me a shade too much. I like reading slabs of Tom. But I look forward to paying even more attention to his citations when I re-read: they are apt and beautiful.
In 'Brave Old World', Tom seems to be saying: take the kitchen-garden pointers you want, think about the informing ideas while you have a glass of wine, then shape your own life based on what you want and can manage. And by extension, to use an actual (and my favorite) Tom quote:
"'It's all right for some', people will grumble. Then make it all right for you.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Tom Hodgkinson fits somewhere on the spectrum between young fogey and old hippy. Well-read (he makes sure he has the time to be), civilised and thoughtful, he is the nearest the modern media has to a 'true gentleman'. Here he enchants us with his take on the old peasant Calendar of Days, starting with "January Chop Wood" and tasking us round the seasons through "June Mind Bees" and "November Kill Pig" to a Christmas as free from tacky consumerism as we could devoutly wish for.
As the year turns, Tom gives us his pragmatic insight into the tasks which make his life in the country both a joy and a back-ache, alongside a literary illumination with poetry and prose from the earliest times onwards. The editor of the Idler is saddened by the way the modern world has turned its back on the richness and wisdom of times gone by, and it is not surprise to find quotations here from Pliny, Tusser and Goldsmith among others (lest you lack his background reading, the back of the book has potted biographies of his heroes for you to refer to).
The medieval calendar was rooted in seasonal tasks, illustrated in illuminated manuscripts like the Luttrell Psalter and appearing on church fonts and in oak carvings. It was a far from romanticised world, in which cold toes, hunger and hard work were accepted and embraced as a necessary part of our existence. The text is similarly realistic, with the author giving advice and philosophy on the business of near-self-sufficienccy which is a world away from the fluffy rose-tinted view in so many poncy and impractical books on the market. The net result is that, in reading him, you get a valuable insight, have a better idea what to expect, and feel better too about your inevitable failures and disasters. But the book is good on joy, too; the real joy that comes from acheivement and authenticity rather than spending money on "fun". Each month's chapter ends with a calendar of feasts, the seasonal celebrations and saints days that used to give us something other than a new series of "Wallander" to look forward to.
Ther are no pictures; this is a book to be read and savoured like a novel, not consulted as a "how to" manual. But have this book by your bed and you'll get more out of every illustrated guide and self-sufficiency book you own.
As the year turns, Tom gives us his pragmatic insight into the tasks which make his life in the country both a joy and a back-ache, alongside a literary illumination with poetry and prose from the earliest times onwards. The editor of the Idler is saddened by the way the modern world has turned its back on the richness and wisdom of times gone by, and it is not surprise to find quotations here from Pliny, Tusser and Goldsmith among others (lest you lack his background reading, the back of the book has potted biographies of his heroes for you to refer to).
The medieval calendar was rooted in seasonal tasks, illustrated in illuminated manuscripts like the Luttrell Psalter and appearing on church fonts and in oak carvings. It was a far from romanticised world, in which cold toes, hunger and hard work were accepted and embraced as a necessary part of our existence. The text is similarly realistic, with the author giving advice and philosophy on the business of near-self-sufficienccy which is a world away from the fluffy rose-tinted view in so many poncy and impractical books on the market. The net result is that, in reading him, you get a valuable insight, have a better idea what to expect, and feel better too about your inevitable failures and disasters. But the book is good on joy, too; the real joy that comes from acheivement and authenticity rather than spending money on "fun". Each month's chapter ends with a calendar of feasts, the seasonal celebrations and saints days that used to give us something other than a new series of "Wallander" to look forward to.
Ther are no pictures; this is a book to be read and savoured like a novel, not consulted as a "how to" manual. But have this book by your bed and you'll get more out of every illustrated guide and self-sufficiency book you own.
Format:Hardcover
Rediscovering the ancient arts of everyday living -- philosophy, husbandry and merriment -- will improve modern-day living, argues Tom Hodgkinson, founder of the Idler. He harks back to an idealised 'brave old world', a time of self-sufficiency in work and play, when "cultivated leisure was the most important part of life".
Rejecting the claim that this is merely "an exercise in whimsical nostalgia", Hodgkinson draws on the wisdom of thinkers and writers, and his own experiences putting his theories into practice while raising a family in rural Devon, to chart the progress of a typical year in pursuit of the pleasures of the past -- from chopping wood in January, to feasting in December.
The simple life may be complicated and hard, he concludes, but the rewards and sense of satisfaction are immeasurable.
Rejecting the claim that this is merely "an exercise in whimsical nostalgia", Hodgkinson draws on the wisdom of thinkers and writers, and his own experiences putting his theories into practice while raising a family in rural Devon, to chart the progress of a typical year in pursuit of the pleasures of the past -- from chopping wood in January, to feasting in December.
The simple life may be complicated and hard, he concludes, but the rewards and sense of satisfaction are immeasurable.
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