Every now and then I come across a book that just grabs me and won’t let me go until I’ve finished it.  It’s not always obvious at first and I have to confess that I was unsure what I was in for when I opened John-Paul Flintoff’s new title.  But once I started I was hooked.

The author is a journalist and a committed environmentalist  who delights in all things that are away from the mainstream.  You know that ‘game’ where you decide on people’s personalities based on the Winnie the Pooh characters?  Well, John-Paul is most definitely Tigger….  In the book he throws himself into a dizzying array of different situations getting largely enthused by much of what he comes across in his search for a new purpose in his life.

The cast list in the book includes an eclectic mix including Richard Gere, Jeremy Clarkson, Rob Hopkins and Prince Charles’ tailor.  Add in posthumous contributions from the Buddha, Mahatma Ghandi, Aldous Huxley, Adam Smith and John Ruskin and you begin to see the breadth of material covered.

The subjects John-Paul looks into range from religion and peak oil to sweatshops and consumerism.  But central to it all is the matter of clothing, how it’s made, who makes it, who profits, who is exploited and who decides what you wear.  J-P experiments with crocheting, knitting, treadle sewing machines and making yarn out of nettles, plastic bags and the wool of a blue faced Leicester.

I found Through the Eye of a Needle an inspiring read.  It conveys an infectious joy in all of us taking individual actions in our lives to address the calamities we see all around us.  As J-P says when a dinner guest rubbishes what he is up to on the basis that people can’t do anything meaningful “Like many people, this woman was paralysed by the scale of the problems facing us, combined with the urgency.  She should relax: we can’t do everything at once.  We can, make a great deal of change incrementally.  And there’s nothing we can do except as individuals.”

Taking his own advice John-Paul makes himself a pair of underpants……

Take my advice and read this book – you’ll feel all the better for it.  If you don’t I’ll eat my hat (so long as it’s made from nettles of course).

‘Through the Eye of a Needle’ is published by the wonderfully sustainable Permanent Publications for a miserly £7.95.

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