Your Life Is Manufactured: How the World is Made and How We Can Do it Better

An extraordinarily good read. I knew nothing about manufacturing (and had not really thought about it), but with some excellent historical and current stories, and engaging personal anecdotes, Minshall leads us gently through all the stages necessary to produce all our ‘stuff’. It has convinced me of the benefit of local manufacturing, and the need for even more focus on sustainability; it also made me laugh out loud.

Many of us won’t have given a moment’s thought to how all the things we use are made. This brilliant book shows that manufacturing is foundational to our lives, not only now but also if there is to be any hope for a sustainable future. I learned something new on every page.

Reading this book is like being given a personal tour of the world’s factories by a real-life Willy Wonka. Brimming with insight, curiosity and wit, Tim is a masterful storyteller of the manufactured world; I’ll never look at a brownie in the same way again.

As a proud manufacturer for over three decades, Tim Minshall’s book, Your Life is Manufactured, is music to my years. We all take manufacturing of the products we use and consume day in and day out for granted. Your Life is Manufactured brings manufacturing to life, communicating with crystal clarity every aspect of manufacturing with superb real-life examples galore. It is literally the A-Z of manufacturing in one book!

This is a remarkable book on manufacturing! Captivating from the opening, it's a book that both experts and newcomers will thoroughly enjoy. By blending everyday experiences with deep research, Tim has turned the world of manufacturing into a relatable and compelling story.

Your Life is Manufactured manages to be both a wonderful overview and pleasurable and eye opening deep dive. An illuminating and at times mind-boggling exploration of a global choreography that means I won’t look at my kettle the same way again.