A movingly honest book that is about a great deal more than breathing and meditation
Susan Hill, The Lady

A movingly honest book that is about a great deal more than breathing and meditation
Susan Hill, The Lady

A searingly honest, viscerally vivid, darkly comic self-examination of the connections between writing, personality and health. Once I started reading it, I didn't want to stop.
David Lodge

Tim Parks is a cool, sceptical observer of the human condition and Teach Us to Sit Still - a quest for relief from chronic pain that begins with relearning how to breathe and ends in something close to spiritual transformation - deserves to be taken with the utmost seriousness.
J.M. Coetzee,

A lovely, well-told story… Parks is a conscientious and expert companion whom it is hard not to like
William Leith, Observer

A lovely, well-told story… Parks is a conscientious and expert companion whom it is hard not to like
William Leith, Observer

Tim Park’s account of curing his ill health through meditation is intensely engaging.
John Carey, The Sunday Times

Tim Park’s account of curing his ill health through meditation is intensely engaging.
John Carey, The Sunday Times

In a world dominated by cheap self-revelation and quack self-help, I suspect that Teach Usto Sit Still may be the real thing: a work of genuine consolation that shows the way out of the dark wood in which everyone, at some time or another, will inevitably find themselves lost.
Will Self, The Times

This is a startlingly brave book – prostate problems don’t usually make comfortable friendships with philosophy, art and history, seasoned with a dash of Buddhist meditation. But since Tim Parks writes so wonderfully well and is so genuinely clever it works. It works very well indeed. Sensible, lyrical, wide ranging, generous hearted and in places very touching.
Sara Maitland

Tim Park’s digressive memoir of his debilitating but ultimately life-affirming struggle with pelvic pain made me leak a few tears, guffaw a lot, and besides quietly instructing me in some fresh perspectives… (it) ultimately taught me an eminently practical lesson about coping with age and mortality. Must I utter the blurbish cliché? Why the hell not: Teach us to Sit Still made me laugh; it made me cry; and it made me seriously think about taking up Vispassana meditation.
Will Self, The Times

Tim Park’s digressive memoir of his debilitating but ultimately life-affirming struggle with pelvic pain made me leak a few tears, guffaw a lot, and besides quietly instructing me in some fresh perspectives… (it) ultimately taught me an eminently practical lesson about coping with age and mortality. Must I utter the blurbish cliché? Why the hell not: Teach us to Sit Still made me laugh; it made me cry; and it made me seriously think about taking up Vispassana meditation.
Will Self, The Times

[Parks} writes with forensic precision about all he experiences, physically and mentally… Even those free of illness will find Parks’s journey gives us much to ponder about the effects of modern living.
Ben Felsenburg, Metro

[Parks} writes with forensic precision about all he experiences, physically and mentally… Even those free of illness will find Parks’s journey gives us much to ponder about the effects of modern living.
Ben Felsenburg, Metro

Tim Parks has written an intensely personal response to a confrontation with that most dreaded of terrors: the indications of a potentially fatal medical condition. Parks gives a clear-sighted, thoughtful and strangely moving account of his own experiences, and brings to them an uncommon blend of wit, lightly-worn scholarship, and heartbreaking candour. A remarkable book....compellingly readable.
Miranda Seymour

A mystery story written with extraordinary nerve and eloquence, Teach us To Sit Still traces the contradictions in the author’s character and his attempt to bring body and mind together and escape from a seriously debilitating condition. The result is harrowing, mordant, and unforgettable.
David Shields

Parks writes wonderfully well about his body as he is reluctantly reconciled to its existence alongside his mind.’ ‘…All the more moving for avoiding new age fakery. Anyone plagued by chronic aches and pains will find much to cheer them in this most unusual and engaging book.
Jane Housham, Express

Parks writes wonderfully well about his body as he is reluctantly reconciled to its existence alongside his mind.’ ‘…All the more moving for avoiding new age fakery. Anyone plagued by chronic aches and pains will find much to cheer them in this most unusual and engaging book.
Jane Housham, Express

Parks is an excellent writer, capable of writing wittily and with great beauty about the near indefinable
Seven, Sunday Telegraph

Parks is an excellent writer, capable of writing wittily and with great beauty about the near indefinable
Seven, Sunday Telegraph

Teach Us to Sit Still is one of the best books on vipassana meditation I have ever read. Not only is Parks’s approach entirely secular and sceptical, which, to my mind, is in the spirit of the early Buddhist teachings, but it is beautifully written.
Stephen Batchelor

Funny, painful and quietly profound book
Doug Johnstone, Scotsman

Funny, painful and quietly profound book
Doug Johnstone, Scotsman

Beautifully written and painfully honest…a fascinating, perceptive and rewarding read
The Big Issue

Beautifully written and painfully honest…a fascinating, perceptive and rewarding read
The Big Issue

Teach Us to Sit Still is a small triumph of narrative artistry, luxuriantly written and full of bone-dry humour. I’d recommend it to any man over 45 who frets incessantly about his health – which is to say, any man over 45.
Marcus Berkmann, The Spectator

Teach Us to Sit Still is a small triumph of narrative artistry, luxuriantly written and full of bone-dry humour. I’d recommend it to any man over 45 who frets incessantly about his health – which is to say, any man over 45.
Marcus Berkmann, The Spectator

This is a book about a redemptive conquest of the disbelieving self. There surely hasn’t been a more attractive portrait of male obsession since Nick Hornby’s Fever Pitch.
Jasper Rees, Mail on Sunday

This is a book about a redemptive conquest of the disbelieving self. There surely hasn’t been a more attractive portrait of male obsession since Nick Hornby’s Fever Pitch.
Jasper Rees, Mail on Sunday

This is a crazy, wince-inducing, uplifting book … Parks has done a service to the many people who would never look at a cheesy self-help book or try anything with a whiff of spirituality about it
Financial Times

This is a crazy, wince-inducing, uplifting book … Parks has done a service to the many people who would never look at a cheesy self-help book or try anything with a whiff of spirituality about it
Financial Times

A maverick book
Richard Mabey, Guardian Summer Reading

A maverick book
Richard Mabey, Guardian Summer Reading

A sophisticated, literary and colourful book
Daily Telegraph

A sophisticated, literary and colourful book
Daily Telegraph

A wonderful, paradoxical book – one that wouldn’t exist if Parks’s spiritual journey were complete. In that sense, his loss is our gain
The Guardian

A wonderful, paradoxical book – one that wouldn’t exist if Parks’s spiritual journey were complete. In that sense, his loss is our gain
The Guardian

Often moving and occasionally hilarious…it articulates inner processes that are notoriously resistant to word. Parks really lets his readers feel what it is to let go
Dan Gunn, Times Literary Supplement

Often moving and occasionally hilarious…it articulates inner processes that are notoriously resistant to word. Parks really lets his readers feel what it is to let go
Dan Gunn, Times Literary Supplement

It is a lovely, well told story of a coming together of a mind and a body
Valeria Lawlor, Irish Catholic

It is a lovely, well told story of a coming together of a mind and a body
Valeria Lawlor, Irish Catholic

a lucid, literary and funny exploration of the language of illness
The Times

a lucid, literary and funny exploration of the language of illness
The Times

The story of Tim Parks’ journey back to health is well told and frequently very funny
William Palmer, Literary Review

The story of Tim Parks’ journey back to health is well told and frequently very funny
William Palmer, Literary Review

Funny and inspiring
Esther Freud, Daily Telegraph, Christmas round up

Funny and inspiring
Esther Freud, Daily Telegraph, Christmas round up

A writer of high intelligence, when writing about the personal, cannot help touching the universal.
Kate Saunders, The Times, Christmas round up

A writer of high intelligence, when writing about the personal, cannot help touching the universal.
Kate Saunders, The Times, Christmas round up

His journey is inward as well as outward, and involves a brutally honest, darkly comic self-examination of his life and character, written with Parks’ usual stylistic verve.
David Lodge, Guardian, Christmas round up

His journey is inward as well as outward, and involves a brutally honest, darkly comic self-examination of his life and character, written with Parks’ usual stylistic verve.
David Lodge, Guardian, Christmas round up

An internal, rather than geographical shift with his gripping account of how he reinvented his lifestyle in order to combat a debilitating and unexplained illness
Mariella Frostrup, Psychologies

An internal, rather than geographical shift with his gripping account of how he reinvented his lifestyle in order to combat a debilitating and unexplained illness
Mariella Frostrup, Psychologies

You can just see it – the tests, the diagnosis, the poignant memories. But it turns out the problem is not as serious as Parks thought. He's been sitting at a desk, typing, for decases. He's kisy as tense and anxious, physically and mentally. The thing is: how do you find a cure for that?
Evening Standard

You can just see it – the tests, the diagnosis, the poignant memories. But it turns out the problem is not as serious as Parks thought. He's been sitting at a desk, typing, for decases. He's kisy as tense and anxious, physically and mentally. The thing is: how do you find a cure for that?
Evening Standard

This is one of the most interesting and revealing testaments you will ever get from a writer. From one of Parks's calibre, it is remarkable, and I sometimes found myself wondering if he had given too much of himself away. But if he has, then we should just be grateful for his generosity. Peace be unto him'
Saturday Guardian

This is one of the most interesting and revealing testaments you will ever get from a writer. From one of Parks's calibre, it is remarkable, and I sometimes found myself wondering if he had given too much of himself away. But if he has, then we should just be grateful for his generosity. Peace be unto him'
Saturday Guardian

You do not need to sign up to a monotheistic dogma or believe in dream – catchers to have ['spiritual' experiences], he argues. Parks's book is a fascinating testimony to that assertion'
The Times

You do not need to sign up to a monotheistic dogma or believe in dream – catchers to have ['spiritual' experiences], he argues. Parks's book is a fascinating testimony to that assertion'
The Times

It's a brilliant, brilliant book, funny, sharply intelligent, at times pleasingly grumpy, at others comfortably erudite, often all four at once'
Daily Mail

It's a brilliant, brilliant book, funny, sharply intelligent, at times pleasingly grumpy, at others comfortably erudite, often all four at once'
Daily Mail

Reading this book is like being privy to the case files of a patient undergoing psychoanalysis. The material is exploratory, an extended period of musing. It invites us to make our own individual reflections. More food for thought than a manual on better living. It's also more engaging than it sounds, thanks to a good dose of detached humour
Thebookbag.co.uk

Reading this book is like being privy to the case files of a patient undergoing psychoanalysis. The material is exploratory, an extended period of musing. It invites us to make our own individual reflections. More food for thought than a manual on better living. It's also more engaging than it sounds, thanks to a good dose of detached humour
Thebookbag.co.uk

Sharing his humbling and elevating story he thoughtfully explains how he found solace in the alternative, through breathing and meditation. A personal and spiritual journey.
Charlotte Vowden, Daily Express

Sharing his humbling and elevating story he thoughtfully explains how he found solace in the alternative, through breathing and meditation. A personal and spiritual journey.
Charlotte Vowden, Daily Express

Littered with literary and cultural allusions, this memoir is engrossing and surprising as Parks struggles against ingrained scepticism in his testimony to the positive impact of meditation
James Urquhart, Financial Times

Littered with literary and cultural allusions, this memoir is engrossing and surprising as Parks struggles against ingrained scepticism in his testimony to the positive impact of meditation
James Urquhart, Financial Times

Parks's discoveries will fascinate not only writers but all citizens of an information age steeped in and propelled by language.
New Yorker

Parks's discoveries will fascinate not only writers but all citizens of an information age steeped in and propelled by language.
New Yorker

A sophisticated, literary and colourful memoir of Parks's battle with chronic illness, and how he moved beyond conventional medicine to find relief in vipassana, a form of Buddhist meditation.
Daily Telegraph

A sophisticated, literary and colourful memoir of Parks's battle with chronic illness, and how he moved beyond conventional medicine to find relief in vipassana, a form of Buddhist meditation.
Daily Telegraph

Surprising, frequently funny
Herald

Surprising, frequently funny
Herald