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Your Life Is Manufactured

How We Make Things, Why It Matters and How We Can Do It Better

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Your Life Is Manufactured

By: Tim Minshall
Narrated by: Tim Minshall
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About this listen

**A WATERSTONES, FT and TELEGRAPH BOOK OF THE YEAR**
**SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2025 ROYAL SOCIETY SCIENCE BOOK PRIZE**
**LONGLISTED FOR THE 2025 FINANCIAL TIMES & SCHRODER BUSINESS BOOK OF THE YEAR**

From mega-factory floors, engineering laboratories and seaports to distribution hubs, supermarkets and our own homes, embark on an eye-opening guided tour through the world of manufacturing and its transformational influence on our lives - and the planet.

FEATURING A NEW AFTERWORD

'Revelatory.' S UNDAY TIMES
'Fascinating.' TELEGRAPH
'Illuminating.' i
'Intensely readable.' IRISH TIMES
'Well-observed and enjoyably written.' FINANCIAL TIMES

Unless you are floating naked through space, you are right now in direct contact with multiple manufactured products, be it furniture, technology, clothing, and or even food. The processes by which these things appear in our lives are virtually invisible. How often do we stop to think: Where do the things we buy actually come from?

Charting the byzantine journeys taken by everyday items to reach us, Your Life is Manufactured reveals the seismic impact manufacturing has had on our lives and the natural world - and explores how it could offer us a path to a truly sustainable, more equitable future. In doing so, Minshall grants us the ability to make better choices for ourselves, our communities and the planet.

'An extraordinarily good read.'
DAVID SPIEGELHALTER

©2025 Tim Minshall (P)2025 Faber & Faber Engineering Environment Nature & Ecology Outdoors & Nature Science
All stars
Most relevant
Gave me a good insight in to the world and issues of manufacturing. I recommend it.

A good read for the uninitiated.

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Optimistic, Realistic, a good entertaining storyline. I never write reviews…this book should be read by politicians and investors as fun facts and mindful introduction to why manufacturing takes time to build and needs local attention to thrive.

Manufacturing is our future, especially in the EU/UK

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Explaining not only the manufacturing processes of objects we use every day but also the history behind the processes is fascinating. How ideas developed and how marketing has developed ideas further is very engaging and thought provoking. Excellent book!

Brilliant and thought provoking

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A splendid walk through a very complicated subject. A timely reminder of the currently fragile system but with pointers to a more sustainable future The authors slightly breathy delivery carries total sincerity and a clear enthusiasm for his subject

I never knew that!

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As someone who has spent my entire career in manufacturing, I found Your Life Is Manufactured both fascinating and deeply affirming. Tim Minshall has written a book that captures, with remarkable clarity, the essential role manufacturing plays in every aspect of our lives. It is insightful, accessible, and quietly urgent in its message.

What resonated most with me was how Minshall reveals the ingenuity behind the objects we so often take for granted. Whether it is the complexity behind a kettle or the story of how an ice cream cone comes to be, he opens the reader’s eyes to the extraordinary systems and people behind the everyday.

This is not a backward-looking celebration of past industrial glory. It is a forward-looking reflection on what manufacturing is becoming and what it must become. His observations on global supply chain fragility, the need for shorter and more sustainable production models, and the undervaluing of practical skills all rang true based on what I have seen and experienced over the years.

Minshall positions manufacturing not just as a set of processes but as a creative, strategic, and profoundly human capability. That distinction is important. It changes the conversation from one of production alone to one of shaping a more resilient and equitable future.

For those of us in the industry, this book is a validation of the work we do and the principles we stand by. For those outside of it, it is a window into the quiet brilliance of the systems that keep society functioning.

I finished it with a renewed sense of pride in the profession I have dedicated my life to, and a strong belief that manufacturing has an even more vital role to play in the years ahead. An outstanding read.

Why Value-Added Manufacturing Is the Future We Must Build

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