"If you believe in the power of literature to change a life, and want to see the bullshit that English teachers must go through to deliver a quality, book-based, literary education to their students, you’ll love this book.

It’s beautifully written, well-paced, and insightful.

Moreover, it deeply explores one of the biggest, perhaps scariest, questions we all must face � “what on earth do I do with my life?""

"I was seventeen when the first volume - of the first edition - of this towering classic was released. I was Mesmerized - and DEVOURED it.

And it had a HUGE impact on my thinking.

At about the same time, during March Break, I discovered the poetry of T.S. Eliot in my parents� library. Same thing - and another PIVOTAL moment.

So unlike Russell in temperament but Equally significant in my life.

I would become a young man riding two horses simultaneously - no mean feat, and potentially fatal!

But then I learned the two men were fast friends.

At Harvard in its Glory Days before WWI, Russell was a visiting Philosophy professor. Eliot was his star undergrad student.

The Englishman was a hard-headed Empiricist, but the American, Eliot, was an imaginative Idealist. However, Russell had locked horns aggressively with British Idealists, and publicly humiliated them.

But Eliot remained a very good friend.

Why?

Simple.

They were both Puritans.

In the infamous first edition of his autobiography, in a section since expurgated, Russell publicly revealed that his young bride, Alys, his first wife, unsuccessfully tried to convince him to be an apostle of Free Love - as she proved to be.

Russell was appalled. He refused forthwith to have any more contact with her. They later divorced.

It was the critical and highly stressful period of the writing of the Principia Mathematica, a time of near-nervous collapse for Russell - his Dark Night of the Soul.

THEY espouse Free Love; WE advise self-control. Know where to draw the line! Good, wholesome living needs nothing more. We can find our releases in any number of other ways.

Russell finally found a modicum of release in the hard work of building a better world.

For he was one of the key architects of the post-war solution to the inveterate bête noires of humanity: he believed the panaceas to be science, social progress and universal mental hygiene.

And while Eliot was finding release from his devils in Anglo-Catholic Faith, Russell escaped HIS, in Utopianism. And also in silence (more about that in a few seconds).

But they remained friends for life.

Because they were both puritanical Blood Brothers!

Now, Puritanism seems pretty strait-laced, but both Russell and I share the same escape. In his world-famous essay In Praise of Idleness (available free online), he touts the salubriousness of lengthy, habitual periods of DOING ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.

Works like a charm, as Brother Steindl-Rast and all meditators find. It replenishes our Spirit within!

However, the dichotomy Puritanism reveals is irreconcilable, save through the faiths we practise.

And Life, unfortunately, is often a Struggle - but it’s still Good. The Spirit makes it so!

Because if you forever ‘walk on with hope in your heart, you’ll NEVER walk Alone...�

For the joy of life is found in the love and light of the Spirit, and the encouragement our lifelong friends bring to our souls.

As Goethe said, “let no one lose heart who has those!�"