Serge is an old friend to Cygnus, and it’s a pleasure to include an article by him. Here is his life story and the account of his spiritual development, from privilege into deep immersion. There’s a lot of name-dropping but a lot of humour as well. He also has a great deal of insight into human nature and clearly his life of material riches when he was growing up didn’t make him happy. The book could probably do with closer editing but there are some lovely anecdotes about people like Papaji, Mother Meera and the Magus of Strovolos, and other teachers who we would have read about. This is a life very unlike most of ours, but it shows how we can all follow the lessons of our conscience and change ourselves through strong resolution and some self-sacrifice.

336pp, 216 x 140 mm, Paperback, 2023, RRP £19.99