A YEAR IN GREEN TEA AND TUK-TUKS: My unlikely adventure creating an eco farm in Sri Lanka

A great read for holidays, especially to Sri Lanka! The first part of the book focuses on Rory's relocation and how he set up the farm, the final part is a complete eye opener to all the tricks governments use to control food, water and resources. Highly recommended

A good read

I bought this book because when I flipped through it in the bookshop, I found a mention of Kerala's forest gardens and the huge positive impact they have on life in an economically `underdeveloped' area of India.It's the story of a British journalist who transports his young family to Sri Lanka in the hope of building a sustainable life away from the chaos he believes industrialized nations will suffer when climate change and peak oil take hold.The book is divided into three sections. The first part is about Rory's quest to find the perfect place to live. It follows him and his family as they live in Wales and fly around the world trying to settle on their new home. At the same time Rory is trying to get a new environmental charity (The Web of Hope) up and running. Rory's main desire to leave the UK seems to stem from his belief that life here is over-regulated and people can't live the way they want to. That, and the weather.The second part of the book is about their new life in Sri Lanka. Unfortunately for them, the family arrived in Sri Lanka shortly before the tsunami hit - and so life there didn't turn out quite as they expected. They did a lot of relief work whilst simultaneously trying to renovate a house and get their organic eco-village off the ground.And the final section is a section of notes on sustainable living - health, transport, food, that kind of thing.I was very disappointed by the book. For one thing, a lot of it isn't about life in Sri Lanka and you have to read through a lot of Rory's life before he gets there. The prologue talks about the tsunami - so the book starts mired in chaos and destruction. And the organic farm that becomes an eco-village is not the star of the book (Rory is) and so we learn precious little about it, or forest gardens in general. The mention of forest gardens in Kerala that I spotted is at the end of the book, and it's just about the only one.And for a man who dislikes over-regulation, Rory has a lot to say about the trials of life in Sri Lanka. There's the chaotic traffic system and resulting pollution that means he has to buy an air-conditioned car to keep his kids safe. There's the legal system that doesn't protect victims and is slow and overly bureaucratic. And there's the food distribution system that means frozen chickens are allowed to defrost in the sun, prawns are harvested from polluted waters and it's impossible to buy organic vegetables or be sure that your food is safe.For anyone trying to reduce their carbon footprint, Rory's globetrotting will be a constant annoyance throughout the book. The inconsistencies between his environmental stance and his real-world actions are normal - we could all do better - but his hopeful musings that a lifetime of tree-planting has offset his flights is just wishful thinking.The upshot of all this is that if you like travel books, and stories of the trials and tribulations of starting life in another country, then you may enjoy this one. If you're looking for an inspiring yarn about organic farms, forest gardens and eco-villages, then look elsewhere.

I bought this book as a birthday present for my brother who was going to be travelling to Sri Lanka. Having flicked open the first couple of pages and started reading, I wanted to finish it! So my brother had to wait!! Very good book, thoroughly enjoyed reading it.

I was just about to write a short review as I near the end of this terrible book, then read the review by O. F. Jones and realise that I couldn't possibly put it better myself. Self righteous tosh from start to finish, with glowing reviews from a few mates.

It was an okay read but abit boring as went into the bickering and in-fighting of the workers on the tea estate which was boring. No real impact of how his wife felt or kid about living out there. Abit political with no real depth about feelings or the actual struggle the family had. Its not that simpleto become a resident so nothing about that. Not really helpful about the actual process of buying a tea plantation for anyone else in uk who might want to do the same. Abit contrived and makes it look real easy to do but in reality not so...rory is better about writing on environmental stuff not the actual story which was poor and shallow. No real idea of the place as descriptions were muddled and distracted with crap about tea estates worker fights. No enthusiasm just a bland book.

What Spowers has written is very good, but it seems to sit with one leg in two camps. The first section of the book is the route that he took to end up with a large tea estate in Sri Lanka via Wales and other parts of the globe, and the struggles of the new culture and life in this larger than life country.His narrative starts just after the Tsunami in 2004, and he describes in detail the challenges of owning a large parcel of land that had been neglected for a decade or so. Some of the people he befriends let him down, and lots of people are trying to take advantage, but he adages to find some one who can manages the incessant and conflicting demands from the residents and local populations.The second section of the books is from the perspective of a strongly motivated environmental campaigner, and the philosophies and ideals that he aims to live by. All very interesting, but I would have rather had more on living in Sri Lanka.

The quality of the book is excellent, the time to delivery good , I also liked the inscription on the first page of the book :) (because its a book of second hand) . In two words: totally recommended !