If The Spirit Moves You: Love and Life After Death - Hardcover

Picardie, Justine

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 033390642X ISBN 13: 9780333906422

Publisher: Macmillan, 2001

Justine Picardie is a journalist and the sister of Ruth Picardie who died in August 1997. Before she died, Ruth wrote a series of columns about her illness which were then published as the bestselling book, BEFORE I SAY GOODBYE.

Now Justine Picardie is writing her own book, the story of life after death and, literally, the story of her own life after her sister's death. Told in a way which explores the different ways that we now conceive the afterlife, in what is supposed to be an age of reason, of scepticism, of science, yet where gaping holes still remain. It is a book about how we fill the space that appears when someone dies; or how the space fills itself. It is a book about love and hope, as well as death. Filled with significant characters from Justine's life (her Jewish, Oxford don father who has suffered from mental illness; her Anglo-Catholic mother who became a therapist; her dead grandfather, a Lithuanian Jew who escaped the holocaust and later became a spiritualist and a regular client at seances; her husband, the voice of reason; her two sons (Justine's reason to live when she wanted to be dead); her friend Kimberly, who killed herself five years ago but believed that her spirit would live on and communicate with those who loved her) and many others, this is a book by a natural writer, beautifully conceived, carefully crafted and certain to be a book savoured and loved by many.

Review:

"A tender memoir [and] a provocative tour of...psychic labyrinths." "An extraordinary investigation...an illuminating and uplifting read. It is the authenticity of Picardie's emotional and intellectual quest, and her conclusions about life and love as much as death, that make this book so hopeful and engaging." "Tackles some of the most important developments in psychic research during the 20th century. The result is a book of great discipline...investigating the limits of what we know about being both dead and alive." "Poignant, moving, and funny. An honest and searingly emotional account of a journey of the spirit. If you've lost someone close, you will find it deeply comforting." "Is there life after death? Picardie's life after Ruth's demise, and her luminous memorial to her, virtually proves that there is."

Book Description:

'Every single person who's experienced the loss, yearning and honourable rage of bereavement will know, immediately, that this is their book. There is nothing else like it, and I'm not sure there ever could be' Nigella Lawson

• Publisher: Macmillan
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 033390642X
• ISBN 13: 9780333906422
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 208