Teach Us to Sit Still: A Sceptic's Search for Health and Healing [Paperback]

`You can just see it - the tests, the diagnosis, the poignant memories. But it turns out the problem is not as serious as Parks thought. He's been sitting at a desk, typing, for decades. He's kisy as tense and anxious, physically and mentally. The thing is: how do you find a cure for that?' --The Evening Standard

`This is one of the most interesting and revealing testaments you will ever get from a writer. From one of Parks's calibre, it is remarkable, and I sometimes found myself wondering if he had given too much of himself away. But if he has, then we should just be grateful for his generosity. Peace be unto him' --The Guardian

`You do not need to sign up to a monotheistic dogma or believe in dream - catchers to have [`spiritual' experiences], he argues. Parks's book is a fascinating testimony to that assertion' --The Times

`It's a brilliant, brilliant book, funny, sharply intelligent, at times pleasingly grumpy, at others comfortably erudite, often all four at once'
--The Daily Mail

`Sharing his humbling and elevating story he thoughtfully explains how he found solace in the alternative, through breathing and meditation. A personal and spiritual journey.' --Daily Express

`Littered with literary and cultural allusions, this memoir is engrossing and surprising as Parks struggles against ingrained scepticism in his testimony to the positive impact of meditation' --Financial Times

`Parks's discoveries will fascinate not only writers but all citizens of an information age steeped in and propelled by language.' --The New Yorker

`A sophisticated, literary and colourful memoir of Parks's battle with chronic illness, and how he moved beyond conventional medicine to find relief in vipassana, a form of Buddhist meditation.' --The Daily Telegraph

`surprising, frequently funny' --Herald

`reading this book is like being privy to the case files of a patient undergoing psychoanalysis. The material is exploratory, an extended period of musing. It invites us to make our own individual reflections. More food for thought than a manual on better living. It's also more engaging than it sounds, thanks to a good dose of detached humour'
--thebookbag.co.uk

"Teach Us To Sit Still is mind-blowingly good" --Red Magazine

"A small triumph of narrative artistry, luxuriantly written and full of bone-dry humor." The Spectator "A searingly honest, viscerally vivid, darkly comic self-examination of the connections between writing, personality and health." David Lodge "A mystery story written with extraordinary nerve and eloquence...The result is harrowing, mordant, and unforgettable." David Shields

An inspiring and entertaining true story of a sceptic's journey into the world of meditation and alternative health.

'Just when the medical profession had given up on me and I on it, just when I seemed to be walled up in a life sentence of chronic pain, someone proposed a bizarre way out: sit still, they said, and breathe...'

TEACH US TO SIT STILL is the visceral, thought-provoking and improbably entertaining story of Tim Parks' quest to overcome ill health. Bedevilled by a crippling condition which nobody could explain or relieve, he confronts hard truths about the relationship between the mind and the body, the hectic modern world and his life as a writer.

Following a fruitless journey through the conventional medical system he finds solace in an improbable prescription of breathing exercises that eventually leads him to take up meditation. This was the very last place Parks expected or wanted to find answers; anything New Age simply wasn't his scene. Meantime, he is drawn to consider the effects of illness on the work of other writers, the role of religions in shaping our sense of self, and the influence of sport and art in our attitudes to health and well-being.

Most of us will fall ill at some point; few will describe that journey with the same verve, insight and radiant intelligence as Tim Parks.

Captivating and inspiring, TEACH US TO SIT STILL is an intensely personal - and brutally honest - story for our times.

As the author, I feel I should say a word in response to a misunderstanding that has arisen in one or two of the reviews. This book does not pretend to be a work of medical research nor to offer a solution to everyone's chronic pain problems. I describe my only dealings with chronic pain and an approach that eventually and much to my surprise released me from this pain. I do not believe that approach will work for everyone. What is generalising about the book is its discussion of our attitudes to mind and body, the way the medical profession approaches them, the way we respond, and so on. This quite simply because my condition forced me to reflect on these things.
--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

'Just when the medical profession had given up on me and I on it, just when I seemed to be walled up in a life sentence of chronic pain, someone proposed a bizarre way out: sit still, they said, and breathe...'

TEACH US TO SIT STILL is the visceral, thought-provoking and improbably entertaining story of Tim Parks' quest to overcome ill health. Bedevilled by a crippling condition which nobody could explain or relieve, he confronts hard truths about the relationship between the mind and the body, the hectic modern world and his life as a writer.

Following a fruitless journey through the conventional medical system he finds solace in an improbable prescription of breathing exercises that eventually leads him to take up meditation. This was the very last place Parks expected or wanted to find answers; anything New Age simply wasn't his scene. Meantime, he is drawn to consider the effects of illness on the work of other writers, the role of religions in shaping our sense of self, and the influence of sport and art in our attitudes to health and well-being.

Most of us will fall ill at some point; few will describe that journey with the same verve, insight and radiant intelligence as Tim Parks.

Captivating and inspiring, TEACH US TO SIT STILL is an intensely personal - and brutally honest - story for our times.

[IMAGE OF VELASQUEZ'S WATERSELLER]

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Praise for Tim Parks:

'Parks is a model of critical reason and clarity New Statesman

'A writer of considerable intelligence and great technical skill...His work is always tremendously readable' Guardian

'Always erudite but never forbidding, bringing an unashamedly humanist consciousness to the lives and works under consideration...thought-provoking and often funny' Observer

'A truly outstanding writer...immensely readable and deeply intelligent' Independent

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Born in Manchester in 1954, Tim Parks moved permanently to Italy in 1980. Author of novels, non-fiction and essays, he has won the Somerset Maugham, Betty Trask and Llewellyn Rhys awards, and been shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. His works include Destiny, Europa, Dreams of Rivers and Seas, Italian Neighbours, An Italian Education and A Season with Verona.