After his partner left him for someone, ‘younger but more mature’, David set himself a life-changing task: to be a more sharing, loving person. As a man with a taste for the exotic however, this was never going to be resolved by a weekend course in Mindfulness. Instead he embarked on a global adventure to learn how to live with others. He visited an anarchist community in Denmark, a futuristic city in the desert and found paradise in a Californian retreat, dreamt up by Aldous Huxley. Most fantastic if all was Damanhur in the Italian Alps, with an underground temple the size of St Paul’s Cathedral, and a ‘fully functioning time machine’.
Along the way, David’s quest raise issues that best many of us. Why is depression rife amongst those who have wealth and freedom? Is getting what you want really utopia? And could alternative communities teach us a better way to live in both our relationships and our modern cities?
This wry, self-deprecatingly funny and philosophical book asks some big questions and finds the answers surprisingly simple.
‘David is a true philosopher, great journalist and excellent writer. He has gone where others only imagine trading, and the book is packed with gags, wisdom and pathos. It actually IS a must-read.‘
Tom Hodgkinson, The Idler