Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Books

Living well (and divorcing well?)

By COLETTE BANCROFT
Published May 25, 2006

	[AP photo: 2002]
	The timing of Paul and Heather Mills McCartney’s split is a bit awkward for the release of her book, Life Balance.

Sir Paul McCartney and Heather Mills McCartney announced the end of their four-year marriage last week, and the timing could be a little awkward for the release of her new book, Life Balance, set to be published in the United Kingdom today.

The self-help tome was co-written by Mills McCartney and a friend, Ben Noakes.

This description of the book comes from www.heathermillsmccartney.com, Mills McCartney's very promotional Web site. Life Balance, it promises, offers readers the tools for achieving a stress-free life. No word yet on whether one of the best tools is a divorce settlement estimated at $50-million to $200-million.

- COLETTE BANCROFT, Times staff writer

"Over the years I have had periods of affluence and times of near penury, times of good health and times of injury and illness. I have learned that peace of mind has very little to do with luxury or leisure." - Heather Mills McCartney

Heather Mills McCartney and Ben Noakes have been friends for over 10 years, since they worked together on a series of films that Heather presented for BBC Pebble Mill. Both have experienced rocky times in their lives and learnt to overcome them: Heather throughout her childhood and when she had the accident that resulted in her losing her leg; Ben reached a very low point in his life four years ago when his TV production company went bust, he lost his home and his wife left him, taking their three small children with her. He went from having a large Georgian house near Hampstead Heath and a Bentley, to living alone in a bedsit, saddled with debts.

One thing Heather and Ben have come to recognize in each other is that they are both survivors. The germ of the idea for Life Balance grew out of this awareness. What is it, they wondered, that makes certain people better able to survive life's knocks? And how are some people able to turn adversity to their advantage? These are the themes that are central to Life Balance. When we achieve and maintain balance in our everyday lives, the punches that life throws no longer feel as though they will overwhelm us, they are simply other challenges to be met.

This is not a ghostwritten celebrity book about how to lead a perfect life. Nor is it a book written by "experts." Neither Heather nor Ben claim to be specialists in this field, but then who is? The book came about after Heather had helped hundreds of people overcome adversity and obstacles in life, from amputees to friends and business colleagues like Ben. It was Ben's idea that Heather's "University of Life" experience in these areas would be a great idea for a book to try and help many others. Their intention in writing this book together is to write personally about their own friendship and the ways in which they each try to maintain stability in their lives. They also lay out a set of tools that can be used by anyone who wishes to adopt a more balanced, healthy lifestyle - the essential keys for life balance - and to provide you with the confidence to take hold of any of these tools and use them to improve your own life.

Life Balance is the perfect book for anyone looking to achieve that thing we all cherish and very few have - a stress-free life.

Word for Word is an occasional feature excerpting passages of interest from books, magazines, Web sites and other sources. The text may be edited for space but the original spelling, grammar and punctuation are unchanged.

[Last modified May 24, 2006, 13:44:57]