Jeremy Clarkson claims council have banned him from selling book

EXCLUSIVE: Jeremy Clarkson says he’s been banned by council bosses from selling his farming book at Diddly Squat farm shop because it’s not ‘local produce’ despite ‘writing them at my kitchen table’

Jeremy Clarkson has slammed the council for banning him from selling his book
He claims he was told by officials the book was not produced locally enough
Clarkson said Diddly Squat: A Year on the Farm was written in his kitchen

Jeremy Clarkson has slammed council officials who banned him from selling his farming book at Diddly Squat Farm after he claims they told him it was not produced locally enough.

Bestselling author Clarkson, 62, revealed he’s blocked from selling copies of Diddly Squat: A Year on the Farm – based on his experiences running the 1,000-acre Cotswold farm – despite writing it at his kitchen table.

The former Top Gear host said: ‘I cannot understand why (the council) doesn’t want me to sell my farming books in the shop.

‘They claim they weren’t made locally but I wrote them at my kitchen table, and you literally can’t get more local than that.

‘It would be helpful if we could sell a few tee shirts too.’

Jeremy Clarkson has slammed council officials who banned him from selling his farming book at Diddly Squat Farm after he claims they told him it was not produced locally enough

Councillor Dean Temple, who is on the planning committee in West Oxfordshire, accepted that Clarkson ‘may have a valid point’ about where he wrote the book, but said: ‘He wanted to open a farm shop to sell milk and honey and we said go ahead.

‘But if you are going to open a farm shop that is for farm produce and a book isn’t farm produce, wherever it’s written. If he’d phoned up and said ‘I want to sell my book alongside produce’ we could have discussed that but he didn’t.’

A West Oxfordshire District Council spokesman said they weren’t aware of any enforcement action taken to stop him selling the books.

They added: ‘A farm shop is for the sale of local produce. If he’s selling books that’s a different thing in planning terms.’

Elsewhere, Clarkson revealed on Instagram today his ‘first piglet’ born on the farm.

He shared a sweet photograph rugged up in gloves and a beanie clutching the newborn on his property.

Elsewhere, Clarkson revealed on Instagram today his ‘first piglet’ born on the farm

Diddly Squat Farm recorded its best year yet in 2022 ahead of the season two premiere of his hit Amazon series.

Pictured: Book cover for Diddly Squat: A Year on the Farm

On Clarkson’s Farm, Jeremy works on his 1,000 acre plot of land, located between Chipping Norton and Chadlington in the idyllic Cotswolds countryside in Oxfordshire.

After just three years of trading, the TV personality’s farm has already amassed £1.34 million in assets and 17 employees, while in 2021 the business had just £44,000 in assets and six employees.

Clarkson and girlfriend Lisa Hogan are currently appealing against an order to remove toilets and a car park that officials ruled were ‘visually intrusive and harmful’ to the Cotswolds area of outstanding natural beauty.

In a letter to officials, he wrote: ‘I’m proud of what we have done here and I’m extremely proud of Lisa for what she’s achieved at the shop, in sometimes very trying bureaucratic circumstances.

‘We do not wish to expand the on-site businesses any further. We are perfectly happy with what we have.’

Clarkson bought the farm in 2008 but it was run by a local until he retired in 2019, at which point the 62-year-old ex-Top Gear star chose to take over the reins himself

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