The Red Rose tells the story, through a novel approach combining fact with fiction, of two people faced with the need to comprehensively re-programme the way they conceive themselves and the world around them. The woman at first considers herself worthless, a judgement she makes by focusing on what she feels she cannot do as well, or as easily and quickly, as others. Eventually, to her surprise, she is told her difficulties are caused by being dyslexic. The man has recently and dramatically lost his job, followed by the breakdown of his marriage. By a strange set of coincidences, he develops a new career as a life coach for people with dyslexia. Through meeting the woman, what begins as a task to help a student complete a piece of written work develops into an exploration of the way that we use our attention, thinking and imaginative faculties, to create the reality of our perceptions and life circumstances.

The experimental format of the book is as a collection of 41 individual self-contained pieces of writing, arranged into five sections, using imagery from natural life processes; a journey through Birth, Initiation, Magic, Shadows and Renewal. Some pieces are story-based whilst others are factual, to aid the reader’s understanding and show examples of how feelings and the workings of mind influence us. All sections are illustrated with photographs and adorned with quotes to provide inspiration. “Birth” introduces the two main characters, the student and her mentor, making the connection between how the mind influences who we think we are and how we feel we should or ought to be. “Initiation” investigates how we can struggle to be happy by failing to keep our lives in balance. “Magic” is a playful chapter that looks at how we can recapture our wonderment for life. “Shadow” reveals the parts of our nature that make life more difficult to bear. “Renewal” culminates in two larger pieces that illustrate two aspects of self-transformation. The book works on a number of different levels and can be read either from cover to cover or by ‘dipping into’.

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As authors, we found that by writing for each other we were able to begin to make sense of our experiences, supporting each other to develop in ways we never could have anticipated. In some cases we were writing about personal life events. In others we used our imagination to explore ideals and question habitual modes of thinking. We both write from two perspectives. For the man, the first is a series of short factual essays showing, in simple and easily understandable terms, how some of the great thinkers of the past have articulated the way that humans inwardly function. The ideas of Plato, Freud and Jung are introduced, along with those of others. The response of the woman is to show how these principles effectively operate in the everyday life of a suburban mother and housewife. Both also write from a second perspective. For the man this is as an imaginatively conceived character on a mission to discover the meaning of love in the modern world; a quest which leads him outside of the dimensions of time and space. For the woman, she awakens to a magical consciousness of life, where plants, rocks, birds, animals, waterfalls and insects carry important messages for us all.

The overall aim of the book is to explore approaches to reconsidering our conditioning and mind-set, re-evaluating it’s relevance and accuracy, helping us to see how we can release the self-imposed limitations of conceiving who we are, who we can and can’t be.

Extracts from The Red Rose can be found on the Themes page

197 pages. 19.1cm wide × 19.1cm tall. ISBN 978-1-4467-9273-5. Published by Diamond Duo