AT Ilminster's annual town meeting last month, mayor Carol Goodall said she could have written a book about the turbulent arrival of supermarket giant Tesco.

With the release of Our Farm this week, Rosie Boycott, broadcaster and national newspaper editor turned smallholder, has done just that.

Since, 2002, Rosie Boycott and her barrister husband Charlie, have established and developed a smallholding on the Dillington Estate, with the aim of making it profitable.

Subtitled A Year in the Life of a Smallholding', the book is about ups and downs of many forms and plaited together throughout the narrative are three main strands.

Amid the economics and emotions of setting up the farm are interwoven autobiographical accounts of alcohol-fuelled lows and nature-inspired highs, as well as the tale of Tesco's arrival in Ilminster - a story complemented by some chilling revelations on supermarket practices.

Boycott herself confesses her smallholding venture is middle class play acting' compared to the tough realities faced by farmers in our region but her enthusiasm and fondness, not to mention substantial capital backing, for the project are evident.

The farm was set up following the rekindling of a long time friendship with Lord and Lady Cameron of Dillington and although Rosie and Charlie aren't afraid to get their hands dirty, its day to day running is managed by David Bellew.

The venture came as the ideal antidote to the deep gloom that followed Boycott's departure from the editor's chair at the Daily Express in 2001.

As she admits: "Two years ago I would never have imagined that I would become the owner of a small group of pigs.

"In my life I've been many things - mother, wife, journalist, writer, magazine editor, newspaper editor, radio and TV presenter, feminist, hippy, divorcee, junkie, drunk and traveller - but pig-owner was never on the cards."

On a personal level, the antics of the farm's pigs and the flora and fauna of South Somerset are not only affectionately recounted, but are a springboard for deep observations about the healing power of the natural world.

Down the road from Dillington, well-documented issues from these pages are taken up and analysed - the bitter struggle against Tesco and its one-way system in Ilminster, and the closing of Chard's Hygrade factory last year are foremost.

Our Farm will place these issues and the actions of local people - Bryan Ferriss, Adam Kennedy and Colin Rolfe, to name a few protagonists - on the national stage.

The Chard and Ilminster News also figures prominently and at times, the narrative feels too parochial to be of interest outside our area.

But the truth is, these stories from Chard and Ilminster are being played out all around the country and this book will no-doubt resonate in communities coming to terms with 21st Century supermarket economics.

By turns affectionate, fierce, worrying and inspiring, Our Farm will touch a nerve with anyone who has ever grown a plant, bought from a supermarket, signed a petition, read this paper, or given a pig a nice friendly scratch behind the ears.

Our Farm is published by Bloomsbury, ISBN 978-0-7475-8897-9.

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