Take one termite nest

Press, 5 March 1988, Page 23

Take one termite nest

Forgotten Household Crafts. By John Seymour. Angus end Robertson, 1987. 192 pp. Index. $39.95. (Reviewed by Glyn Strange) A perceptive but perhaps unkind person once said that Britain is so intent on preserving its past that it will soon need a Curator rather than a Prime Minister. And who better for the job than John Seymour? For years he has been urging people to turn the clock back: to grow rather than buy their vegetables, to farm their own land, to make the necessaries of life rather than pick them up at the local supermarket. Three years ago he brought out "The Forgotten Arts,” a guide to the traditional skills practised (mostly by men) in the fields and forests and workshops of yesteryear. “Forgotten Household Crafts” is, on the whole, the female version, a hymn of praise to the traditionally female arts of cooking, needlecraft, laundering, and so on. These days John Seymour is a bit of a cottage industry himself. Researchers, editors, and! artists have gathered round him to produce the attractive and appealing books for which he has become famous.

One problem with this' latest effort seems to arise, however, from a diversity of purpose between him and his editors. In his introduction he claims that the book not only chronicles the past, but may also provide a pointer to the future. When women once again adopt the noble profession of housewife and

homemaker, the world will be a better place: and this book is, for Seymour, a celebration of the things that women do best, a compendium of the knowledge that makes housewifery so rewarding an occupation. The stance of his editors, however, is more encyclopaedic (and presumably less sexist). They include all sorts of things such as cleaning and ironing that most people In any era would recognise as chores rather than crafts. A glance. at the cumbersome and often ugly [ equipment used in homes before electrification makes the plastic bucket seem almost like a work of art; while the industry involved, which this book glosses over, made the emancipation of women as necessary as it was inevitable. As a guide to the salvation of society, “Forgotten Household Crafts” falls short, but as a museum-on-paper it is hard to imagine anything better. Old photographs of people at work mingle with numerous illustrations of gadgets and paraphernalia, and the accompanying text strikes just the right balance between explanation and nostalgia. | ! . Would you know what to do with a

wooden slane? Or a goffering stack? You may have seen an old charcoalheated flat iron, but have you seen the petrol, methylated spirits and gasdriven models? And did you know that you can bake bread in an old termites’ nest? If these things interest you, you will love John Seymour’s latest book.