How do we find calm in our frantic modern world? Tim Parks lifelong sceptic of all things spiritual - finds himself on a Buddhist meditation retreat trying to answer this very question. With brutal honesty and dry wit, he recounts his journey from disbelief to something approaching inner peace and tackles one of the great mysteries of our time how to survive in this modern age.

Selected from the bookTeach us to Sit Stillby Tim Parks

VINTAGE MINIS: GREAT MINDS. BIG IDEAS. LITTLE BOOKS.

A series of short books by the worlds greatest writers on the experiences that make us human

Also in the Vintage Minis series: Swimmingby Roger Deakin Motherhoodby Helen Simpson Workby Joseph Heller Libertyby Virginia Woolf

Born in Manchester,Tim Parksgrew up in London and studied at Cambridge and Harvard. He lives in Milan.

He is the acclaimed author of novels, non-fiction and essays, includingEuropa,In Extremis,A Season with Verona,Teach Us to Sit StillandItalian Ways.He has been shortlisted for the Booker Prize, won the Somerset Maugham Award, the Betty Trask Prize, the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize, the John Florio Prize and the Italo Calvino Prize.