I'm a huge fan.  This is an excerpt from her book, Our Farm
My life as a smallholder
by Rosie Boycott
When Rosie Boycott lost her job as a Fleet Street editor, she sank into depression and drinking and was seriously injured in a car crash. But as she describes in a magical new book, she found an unlikely way to fight back from the brink - running a smallholding in Somerset with a menagerie of pigs, chickens and ducks. This is our second extract . . .
Standing in the Victorian potting shed in our walled garden, I shake a tiny coriander seed out of its packet and drop it into the soil in a pot. I then do the same with marjoram, green basil, purple basil, flat-leaf parsley, curly parsley, chervil, oregano and peppermint.
This process of planting makes me happy. All my life I've lived within a political system which believes that sustained economic growth will lead us towards happier, fulfilled lives: more holidays, more cars, more gadgets and gizmos.
Yet all the evidence now points to the contrary. Once a country has filled its larder, or a person has met his or her basic needs, do extra riches bring extra happiness? No. Surveys show overwhelmingly that industrialised nations have not become more contented.
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