Anna Shepard is a Times journalist who writes the Eco-Worrier column in the Saturday Times. She also writes a green living blog (www.timesonline.co.uk/ecoworrier) and contributes to all sections of The Times, especially Travel, The Magazine, The Knowledge and Books. As well as freelancing for other publications (New Statesman, Elle), she regularly appears on TV and radio to discuss green issues, including BBC News 24, BBC Radio Wales and BBC FiveLive.

How Green Are My Wellies: Small Steps and Giant Leaps to Green Living with Style will be published by Eden Books in Spring 2008.

How far are you prepared to go along the green path?

You might think Anna’s decision to re-locate her garden snails to the local park is taking matters too far – particularly given the risk of forgetting them, or their propensity to escape before they’ve arrived at their new home. But being planet-friendly, taking life into your own hands and changing it for the better is liberating in all sorts of unexpected ways. And whether this means growing your own vegetables, throwing a clothes-swap party, concocting natural potions or green speed-dating, it is also invigorating, enriching, and a good laugh too.

Month by month, Anna explores everything from avocado cleansers to guerrilla gardening to worm-racing to perfect the art of being green. Charged with infectious enthusiasm, her yearbook is full of new ideas, includes brilliant ‘eco-cheats’, and demonstrates that you can be green with style.

‘I accept that my joyful conversion to green living might have been assisted by my genes. While mind was not a childhood waving banners and stamping my tiny feet on CRC deodorants, thrifty blood runs through my veins. My mother is a great one for making food ‘go further’. And in this current climate, following the footsteps of previous generations is the order of the day, whether its by baking bread and cycling to work or confessing to a knitting habit and signing up to an allotment.

But if the origins of my green leanings lie with my family, it is writing my ‘Eco-Worrier’ column, along with the Eco-Worrier blog, that has given them the opportunity to flourish. I’ve received thousands of comments and emails with invaluable information about all aspects of eco-friendly living and they have inspired and encouraged me – especially when I’ve had to ‘fess up to eco sins…’