A millionaire who had to lose everything so he may be given the most valuable gift in the world.

The Hustler’s Tale is a modern-day tale of redemption and hope focussing on the struggle with ’Self’. Andrew’s life articulates a ‘pilgrimage for the soul’, a search for a true place of belonging in an increasingly hectic and polarised world which leads ultimately to a transformation of the heart. Andrew takes the reader with him on this search, a search that leads him to explore his relationships with people, places, and things at a deeply profound spiritual level. Documenting his journey from addict and alcoholic through to getting clean and sober and establishing himself as ‘a responsible and productive member of society’, but being an addict isn’t just about an obsession with chemicals !

William James, the American psychologist, stated that most of us experience a spiritual awakening that can be termed of ’the educational variety’. Andrew documents his personal struggle with organised religion and formal Christian doctrine. His personal insight into how he can call himself a Christian is illuminating. Andrew embraces the concept of secular theology; his interpretation of the Lord’s prayer is both beautiful and practical, arrived at via personal experience, pain, and suffering. The true cost of his discipleship to the words of that man from Galilee is laid bare on the page. Perhaps all of us can learn a little something from Andrew’s story in a world where many people are struggling to cope with the pressures of everyday life.

The ‘postscript’ to the novel uses the effects of the Anthropocene as the backdrop to illustrate how this continued separation from the soul, both individually and corporately, could have profound life-changing consequences for human beings as a species and our Planetary Health.