Mixed blessings is a look at the lives of the agricultural community of the Quantock Hills of West Somerset, through the pictures and extracts from the many hours of interviews the author recorded with farmers and other rural workers from the surrounding area. This book contains a selection of the many hundreds of pictures which Gary has made for the Quantock Hills AONB rural archive.
 
Gary has been a documentary photographer for over 20 years.  During that time his work has sought through his images to define the nature of English people.  His work is mainly influenced by the social documentary work of the mass observation movement during the middle and later half of the 20th century, which sets out to record the lives of the ordinary men and women of this country who are so often overlooked.