To honour a promise to her dying father, Jane takes her ageing incontinent mother to Italy. What could possibly go wrong? Jane Christmas had always had a difficult relationship with her mother, but thought that a mother and daughter trip to Italy could be the start of a whole new friendship. In this hilarious but poignant memoir, she discovers that it will not be that easy. Describing her mother as a cross between 'Queen Victoria and Hyacinth Bucket', Jane struggles to build bridges to a woman she has always found a puzzle, while also trying to cope with her mother's failing health and physical needs.

I have much pleasure in writing a preface to Mr. Takatura Ando's book on Aristotle. Apart from his intrinsic importance, as one of the three or four greatest of all philosophers, Aristotle is important on having given for many centuries the greatest influence in moulding the thought of European countries. The language difficulty has no doubt prevented him from exercising very much influence on Japanese thought, and I welcome very warmly to hear that Mr. Ando is about to have his book printed in Japan. I hope it will be widely circulated, as it must certain ly deserve that. W. D. Ross AUTHOR'S FOREWORD In publishing this book, I cannot prohibit myself of reminding the days and nights when it was written. In that era of worldwide madness, Aristotle's philosophy was the only refuge wherein my depressed mind could come to life. It was written bit by bit under all desperate circum stances throughout the war time. My heart was set on the completion of this work while the fate allowed me to live. It was nearly carried out by the end of the war. Having no hope of survival, I buried my manu script in the earth, without however any expectance of a better lot for it.

To celebrate her 50th birthday and face the challenges of mid-life, Jane Christmas joins 14 women to hike the Camino de Santiago de Compostela. Despite a psychic’s warning of catfights, death, and a sexy, fair-haired man, Christmas soldiers on. After a week of squabbles, the group splinters and the real adventure begins. In vivid, witty style, she recounts her battles with loneliness, hallucinations of being joined by Steve Martin, as well as picturesque villages and even the fair-haired man. What the Psychic Told the Pilgrim is one trip neither the author nor the reader will forget.

“The best kind of memoir, revealing, refreshing, and reflective enough to make readers turn many of the questions on themselves.” —Booklist (starred review) With humor and opinions aplenty, a woman embarks on an unconventional quest to see if she is meant to be a nun. Just as Jane Christmas decides to enter a convent in mid-life to find out whether she is “nun material,” her long-term partner Colin, suddenly springs a marriage proposal on her. Determined not to let her monastic dreams be sidelined, Christmas puts her engagement on hold and embarks on an extraordinary year-long adventure to four convents—one in Canada and three in the UK. In these communities of cloistered nuns and monks, she shares—and at times chafes and rails against—the silent, simple existence she has sought all of her life. Christmas takes this spiritual quest seriously, but her story is full of the candid insights, humorous social faux pas, profane outbursts, and epiphanies that make her books so relatable and popular. And Then There Were Nuns offers a seldom-seen look inside modern cloistered life, and it is sure to ruffle more than a few starched collars among the ecclesiastical set. “A lovely, heartfelt tale. Get thee to a bookstore and buy it.” —A. J. Jacobs, New York Times bestselling author of The Year of Living Biblically “In fluid and often playful prose, she introduces women and men (she spent a week at a monastery on the Isle of Wight) who have devoted their lives to prayer, including a skydiving 90-year-old nun.” —Maclean’s