Book Review: Home Herbal by Maureen Little

This book on using herbs for health, beauty, and domestic products, is a little treasure. Maureen writes in a way that makes every product and every herb inviting and accessible. Each page leaves you feeling an urgent desire to create a herb garden or to add ever more species of herbs to your current garden.

Chapter 1 deals with growing, harvesting, preserving and storing herbs. Sometimes in a question format, and other times as straightforward instructions on how to perform the desired task and get desired results.

Chapter 2 looks at different planting schemes for specific uses, for instance there's a planting plan for first-aid and another for cosmetics, etc.

Chapter 3 provides a C to T of body parts or ailments and the relevant recipes. Often there are two or three different recipes that you can try for problems such as bites and stings, hangovers, or toothache!

Chapters 4 and 5 look at using herbs for cosmetics and in the home, respectively.

Beyond this there is an excellent gazetteer of the herbs mentioned in the book. For me, this was the best bit of an excellent book. As well as a section on the vitals for the plant (height and spread, plant pat used, uses, etc), Maureen gives an interesting history of the plant and a description of what the plant looks like.

There are also appendices and a glossary at the end of the book.

So while this book, at 205 pages in small format, is brief and concise; it's filled with relevant information and facts in an enjoyably readable style. It's definitely worth a read as I can see it being a book readers will dip into each time they have need.