The Reading Warehouse

Once, enough food could be grown in Britain to feed the whole population. High Streets were full of small businesses where everything could be bought or repaired. We lost this national resilience years ago. Now the High Streets are occupied by chain stores full of imported goods, town centre market gardens are car parks, and we can only produce enough to feed half our ever expanding population. The endless economic growth promised has turned sour. Environmentalists argue with politicians, scientists with religious leaders. Resource wars flare up worldwide.

However serious the situation is, however impossible a solution seems, we arrived here slowly, one piece of shopping at a time. We need to take back our power and make new choices. There's no time to lose.

The Handbook of Practical Resilience outlines how to proceed in an immediate and realistic way. Accessible ground level strategies are combined, and every positive effort counts. This second edition includes your personal resilience assessment and details on constructing a plan to increase this. Simple tasks, adventures and research lead you on the journey to a future with better quality of life, natural harmony, and hope.

Resilience expert Elizabeth J Walker is the author of 'Recipes for Resilience - Common Sense Cooking for the 21st Century'.