BOOK REVIEWS

Living the Good Life
How one family changed their world from their own backyard

Linda Cockburn
Hardie Grant
Distributed by Southern Publishers Group
$NZ39.95

KIWI-born Linda Cockburn and her Aussie partner, Trevor Wittmer - fed up with the daily consumer grind - commit themselves to trying sustainable living for six months in Queensland suburbia.

The couple, with young son Caleb, opt for solar energy, using rainwater and growing all their own produce. Here, then is a warts-and-all account of the trials and tribulations of their experiment. You get to know about the nutritional value of snails, the frustrations of fetta cheesemaking and the environmental impact of disposable nappies. Laced with plenty of facts and figures about how we treat our planet, this makes for an entertaining, instructive read for anyone with a "green" conscience.

Reproduced with permission from the former Weekend Gardener magazine. The views expressed here are not necessarily those of the RNZIH