The Battersea Park Road to Enlightenment [Paperback]

Isabel Losada leaves no stone unturned--literally--on her trip down The Battersea Park Road to Enlightenment. Wishing to live her life "completely, abundantly, joyfully and stupidly" she makes an entertaining travelling companion as she describes her efforts to move away from her in-a-rut life where "nothing was changing". And she takes us everywhere with her: a life-skills course in North London; a convent retreat in Oxford; T'ai chi in France; a massage in Bath--even the past as she explores her previous incarnations. The journey is invigorating and exhausting and enriched by the numerous characters she meets en route.

The book is much more than a travelogue, however. Losada describes with considerable skill and sensitivity the breakthroughs in the lives of people around her--the woman who starts to work through childhood abuse, for instance, and another who confronts the bullies from school--and her honesty is refreshing and often surprising (her description of colonic irrigation takes the breath away). Often she picks up useful nuggets of inspiration that the reader can take away and digest and these are sprinkled through the text. Intercut throughout is her life with her daughter in a "shoebox" in Battersea and her burgeoning romance with Mark, the man she meets at a hypnotherapy seminar.

Losada has an entertaining and witty style and comes across as somewhat bossy but likeable all the same. And the stones she doesn't leave unturned?

The first part of this new experience involved sitting up and lying down again on to a row of hot stones that had been laid down to head up the muscles on either side of the spine. Damned clever

. --Christina McLoughlin

'Candid, thought-provoking, sassy and very, very funny' Daily Telegraph 'Searching and honest' Independent on Sunday 'Remarkably revealing' Mail on Sunday 'Brazenly probing' Scotsman

'You know those people who always radiate cheerful optimism? Nauseating aren't they? I want to become one of those. I want to find out how to live life completely, abundantly, joyfully, stupidly. This is my quest. Enlightenment.' So proclaims Isabel Losada, Starbucks addict, exercise allergic and self-confessed sceptic as she sets out on the road to enlightenment. Beginning with an Insight seminar where hundred people with name badges discuss their 'inner beauty', Isabel journeyed through a gruelling course of 'Rolfing' nude Goddess workshops, a weekend of tantric sex ('Yes! Yes! Yes!') and a reincarnation session, not to mention a spot of colonic irrigation. Irreverent yet open-minded, funny and always honest, "The Battersea Park Road to Enlightenment" is also moving and ultimately illuminating. For anyone who has ever been tempted to dip a toe in the waters of self-discovery, Isabel Losada plunges you straight in.

I love this site because...
I love this amazon.co.uk site because being a writer is, of course, quite isolating and this puts authors in touch with the readers. And I really enjoy looking at the reviews to see what people liked and what they didn't and which bits are enjoyed and why.

I'm a single parent trying to live life the best I can and sort myself out. So I've been off and test driven some workshops. My quest to be happy every day, regardless of external circumstances, is quite genuine and I went out there to learn anything and everything that would help me to be a happier and hopefully more well balanced human being. You may think this is selfish but the only way I know how to give happiness to others is to have lots to spare. I've had fun as you'll see - but the humour is at the expense of my skeptical narrow mindedness and not at the expense of the disciplines studied.

I've tried to pass on some of the best of what I've learned - while being entertaining I hope. If the book doesn't make you laugh out loud occasionally please throw it in the bin. I hope you enjoy Battersea Park Road and, if you phone any of the contact names in the back of the book and try any of the courses yourself, I hope that you enjoy them and benefit from them as much as I did...

Isabel Losada, actress, singer, dancer and television producer, lives in Battersea with her teenage daughter.