Isabel Losada

Isabel Losada

Isabel Losada, British writer
Born United States
Occupation Writer, journalist
Nationality American and British (dual nationality)
Period 1999 –
Genre Narrative non-fiction, journalism
Notable works The Battersea Park Road to Enlightenment;
For Tibet With Love
Website
www.isabellosada.com

Isabel Losada is a British writer and former actress, singer, dancer, and television producer. Her four most recent full-length books (The Battersea Park Road to Enlightenment; For Tibet, with Love; Men! and The Battersea Park Road to Paradise) combine humour with a serious look at their subject matters and are true-life accounts of her own experiences.[1][2] She has one daughter and lives in Battersea, London.[3]

Books

New Habits

New Habits (Hodder) examines happiness among Church of England nuns. When a friend announced that she was going to become a nun (or more correctly a 'religious'), the author decided to interview ten more young women who were making the same choice to join a range of different Christian communities ranging from enclosed contemplative communities to Franciscan communities. The interviews cover the women's feelings about the vows of poverty, celibacy and obedience as well as describing other details of the daily life of a religious sister.

The book is included in the Diocesan Directors of Ordinands recommended reading list for those exploring vocation.[4]

The Battersea Park Road to Enlightenment

The Battersea Park Road to Enlightenment (Bloomsbury) is an exploration of the subject of happiness. In it she tries out many of the 'New Age' courses available in the UK that claim to offer routes to inner peace and personal fulfilment. The book explores Insight Seminars, T'ai chi a retreat in a convent, Astrology, Tantric Sexuality,[5] Co-Dependent's Anonymous, Colonic irrigation, Rebirthing-breathwork, Past life regression with Roger Woolger various forms of massage including Stone massage and Kahuna Hawaiian massage, Neuro-linguistic Programming, an Anger management workshop, and a workshop on Angels with William Bloom. The book was chosen as Radio 4's Book of the week and Isabel performed it herself for the series. The book went on to become a bestseller in the UK and has been translated into 15 languages including Japanese and Russian. Oprah Radio host Mehmet Oz called the book "a fantastically cool endeavour".[6] Bloomsbury produced a '10th Anniversary Edition' in 2011 and in 2014 the book is in its 20th reprinting.

For Tibet, with Love. A Beginner's Guide to Changing the World

For Tibet, with Love. A Beginner's Guide to Changing the World (Bloomsbury) explores what one person can do to make a difference, in this case to the cultural imperialism of the Chinese Government in Tibet. The book was republished in 2005 reversing the title and subtitle so became 'A Beginner's Guide to Changing the World' (which was also the title of the US edition).[7] This second UK edition also had a different ISBN. In 2010 Bloomsbury brought out a new third edition, with a new preface under the original title.[8] In this book Isabel travels to Lhasa explores how individuals and groups can use the media to raise awareness and influence public opinion and finally travels to Dharamsala to interview His Holiness The Dalai Lama.

Men! Where the **** Are They?

Men! (Virgin / Random House)[9] is a humorous examination of the widely experienced sociological phenomenon of there being many more single and available women over the age of 40 in our cities than men and answers the question "Where are all the interesting and available men?" The book considers the many factors that have produced this discrepancy including an interview with Simon Baron-Cohen, which details the differences between the male and the female brain. During a tour of Ireland to promote the book, she appeared on the renowned Gerry Ryan Show (the interview lasting a whole hour).[10] Following Ryan's untimely death, she declared that "making Radio with Gerry was better than having sex with most men".[11]

The Battersea Park Road to Paradise

The Battersea Park Road to Paradise, (Five Adventures in Being and Doing) (Watkins) explores Feng Shui, Anthony Robbins, Vipassana, Advaita and Shamanism was published in 2011. This book begins by exploring the impact of our environment and ends with an exploration of the nature of consciousness itself through the teacher Mooji and ends with an experience of taking Ayawaska with the Asheninka in the Amazonian Rainforest.[12]

Talks and Journalism

She gives comedy talks and presentations about her work, particularly at literary and arts festivals such as, for example, the Brighton Festival, The Edinburgh International Book Festival, Ways With Words (Dartington)[13] and the South Asian Literature Festival.[14] As part of the 2011 SW11 Literary Festival she was "Author in Residence", which also involved spending nine days sat in the window of a Waterstone's bookshop![3][15] She has been interviewed about her work on BBC Radio 4's Midweek, Start the Week, Woman's Hour (several times) and Excess Baggage[16] as well as for Jeremy Vine and Steve Wright on Bbc radio 2. Isabel was also invited to present her own series (x12) of Thought for the Day for BBC Radio 2. She has been interviewed by local radio stations all over the UK, America and Australia on several book tours.

She writes regularly for newspapers and journals,[2][5][17] and the occasional blog.[18] A short article on the "importance of knowing nothing" was published by the prestigious Royal Society of Arts in 2011.[19]

Tibet

She has been a supporter of and active campaigner for the Tibetan cause for many years, and a founding member of 'Act for Tibet'. In 2003, during the writing of the book For Tibet, with Love , she organised a stunt in Trafalgar square — a banner depicting the Dalai Lama was unfurled from the top of Nelson's Column and a pro-Tibet campaigner made a parachute jump.[20] Her list of 'top 10' books about the Dalai Lama and Tibet appeared in the Guardian.[17]

The Battersea Literature Festival

In 2014 Isabel was invited to become the artistic director of The Battersea Literature Festival. A Festival that takes place in the first two weeks of September in various locations in Battersea which include The Battersea Arts Centre, The Battersea Power Station and local bookshops. Isabel described being given this opportunity as 'The dream job for an author between books.'

Bibliography

References

External links

Further reading

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