A Place of Healing for the Soul: Patmos

I'm not in the mood to write a thoughtful review, so I'll keep it short. When I read a book I can almost never read it twice, no matter how much I enjoy it. This one has been the exception with C.S. Lewis and Solzhenitsyn. The book just made me feel good, that is the only reason I am taking this time to thank Mr. France. Also I love his wife's cover design. John Burleson, Jacksonville, North Carolina

This candid, informative and funny book is an engaging account of how France came to know the living Christ. Before he arrived on Patmos France had endeavoured for years to discover and share in the Orthodox Christian faith of his beloved wife. He had read widely and, on the cerebral level, understood much, but the certainties he must have continued to elude him. Then, after he had made the island his home and had become immersed in its culture - both ancient and `modern' - he began to perceive for the first time "that Christian truth is not an objective series of propositions that can be understood by anybody. It is accessible only to those who have undergone ... a complete change of perspective". France agreed to be baptised whilst still officially an agnostic but once he had been received into the Orthodox Church he came - over a period of time - to experience for himself the reality of grace, which hitherto he had felt to be shrouded in the colourful imagery of myth. "It had come in the form of an increase not in conviction, but in awareness, in receptivity". `Healing for the Soul' could equally serve as a potted history and/or a geographical guide (in which case the provision of a map and an index would make it a much easier read), but far more important is that it bears witness to an understanding: that Orthodox Christianity is the means whereby a man's heart may be educated.

We met Peter France on Patmos and read several of his books. Having retired here, we know the people, places and religiousexperiences he wrote about. Without being pedantic, he wrote about his baptism to Greek Orthodoxy after years of study and introspection. We were impressed by the meticulous attention he's given to the smallest details and nuances of lifeon Patmos. We chuckled as he described some individuals with hisunique wry humor, and quietly reflected upon many of his more serious, thought-provoking comments. In a very relaxed manner hehas you focus on many meaningful aspects and some amusing incidents one experiences while being on this tiny, remote island. I would venture to say that he has broadened and deepend our appreciation of this place we now call "home".As to the reviews offered by Mr. Ashley Black and Mr. Aleko:"Gentlemen, I believe we have not read the same book, nor canI believe you've ever lived on Patmos".After reading "A Place Of Healing For The Soul: Patmos" you willfind that one is both entertained and stimulated to think moreabout one's every-day life. You may even develope an "itch" tovisit this place. Thank you, Peter, for this lovely book.

Former BBC reporter, Peter France, intersperses his dream of a simpler life with a quest for spiritual awakening. For years he has studied and reported on different religions, yet he skeptically remains an agnostic. When his wife, Felicia becomes an Orthodox Christian, sparks are lit within him to at least intelligently inquire about this tradition that has set his wife on spiritual fire. The couple ends up on Patmos, a Greek Isle of the Dodecannese grouping, the island where John the Evangelist wrote his famous gospel and had his frightening visions which led to the prophesies in the Book of Revelations. Through his wife, France becomes aquainted with nuns and priests of Orthodox Christianity who patiently recognize his need and are happily willing to help nudge him subtly on his journey.For this is what France discovers while he and his wife plod through the normal (and not so normal) procedures necessary to move their lives from England to Greece---that spirituality is a journey--not an arrival. Religion opens a portal that will lead to greater understanding and oneness with the infinite. It is this 'Revelation' that brings the beginning of peace to Peter France's life. The procedural part of the narrative--the complicated 'purchase' of their home, their frustrating difficulties with the electricity, the comprehension of what time means in terms of promised appointments by workmen, their decision to move out of town and into an isolated farmhouse and their subsequent battle with the field animals and vermin that ruled there in the absence of human beings are all charmingly told and woven with tales of the island's history and France's discoveries about Orthodoxy's relevancy to his life.A very pleasant sojourn -- I wish Mr. France tranquility and greater understanding---God willing!