Most of us believe that in order to achieve anything worthwhile, whether in our careers, family life, health or even on the sports field, we have to work hard & apply a lot of effort. In fact, just the opposite is true. In The Art of Effortless Living, Dr. Ingrid Bacci offers compelling evidence that the most productive, creative & healthiest individuals are those who practice effortless living. By doing less, paradoxical as it may seem, they achieve more. In this book you will meet individuals who have transformed their lives in radically simple ways:
The executive whose influence over her colleagues increased dramatically after she began a deceptively simple relaxation
The patient who eliminated thirty years of suffering from migraines after ten training sessions in releasing unconscious muscle tension.
The golf player who corrected his golf swing in one brief session, using a series of visualization exercises.
This book shows you how to dissolve conscious & unconscious stress through simple techniques that replace effort with effortlessness. The result is a more rewarding lifestyle that leads to physical vitality, increased productivity, creative relationships & the freedom to express your best self.



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In 1944 Tom Wainwright, a British soldier, arrives in the small Italian town of Petriano. The war is nearly over, & in the lull before the Allied troops move further north to capture Florence Tom forges a friendship with the Parini family
- & in particular with the eldest daughter, Giuliana. When the war ends he chooses to stay in Italy, planning to build a life with the woman with whom he has fallen deeply in love, but in the chaotic, tragic fallout of the end of the Second World War his hopes are dashed.

Fifty years later Isabel Wainwright, Tom's daughter, sets off for Petriano herself, to attend a ceremony naming a piazza in her father's honour. But Isabel isn't so much going to represent her father as to try & find him
- for she & her mother have heard nothing of him since, nearly twenty years earlier, he went out one day & never returned. She doesn't even know whether her father is dead or alive, but hopes that by discovering something of his past, she can build a picture of the man she hardly knew.



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In this entertaining & enlightening collection David Lodge considers the art of fiction under a wide range of headings, drawing on writers as diverse as Henry James, Martin Amis, Jane Austen & James Joyce. Looking at ideas such as the Intrusive Author, Suspense, the Epistolary Novel, Magic Realism & Symbolism, & illustrating each topic with a passage taken from a classic or modern novel, David Lodge makes the richness & variety of British & American fiction accessible to the general reader. He provides essential reading for students, aspiring writers & anyone who wants to understand how fiction works. ...

This exquisite book is a treasure of timeless wisdom from one of the most respected Buddhist teachers in the West. The book concentrates on personal peace of mind & on how we can help to bring justice & compassion to the world around us. Through striking"ations, concise teachings & memorable true stories organised into three sections, it explores the difficulties of opening our hearts to those who have hurt or betrayed us, & why it is essential to do so. Psychological stumbling blocks & confusions about the real meaning of forgiveness, love & peace are revealed, as well as the blessings & benefits of putting these three qualities into practice. ...

In The Art of Life Paul Durcan takes us around County Mayo in his 'filthy, two-door, bottle-green Opel Astra', stopping off at Westport & Achill Isl&, where he declares himself to be 'globally sad', but 'locally glad'. Next he travels east to Dublin to hold in his arms his newborn granddaughter & thence to Tuscany, Poland & Japan. Along the way he reflects upon parental pride, the aches & pains of old age, the trim bottoms of snooker players, the wisdom of ex-wives & dogs on Sandymount Str&, while introducing us to a host of colourful characters, including a bishop, a roofer, a milkman, a priest & an unmarried mother. Is there an art of living or is life a work of art? This magnificent new collection
- published on Paul Durcan's sixtieth birthday
- reveals one of Ireland's most successful & popular poets at the height of his powers & continuing to challenge, amuse & delight.

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A NEW TRANSLATION BY TOM PAYNE

Are you a sought-after dreamboat forever turning down invitations from attractive admirers?

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Is it ever too late to make up for the past?


Laura Bartone looks forward to her annual family reunion


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