Because I have had no formal education in philosophy, ethics, classics, or theology, but have worked out my ideas from eighty years of life experience, including my work and the ups and downs of family life, I do not have the technical vocabulary of these disciplines. So I write in everyday language; I am a fool who rushes in where angels fear to tread, and often do not know when I am challenging accepted ideas. My writing brings together thoughts which have arisen from pondering Nature, from my practice of Christianity, especially prayer, from my medical and psychiatric (and psychoanalytic) training and work, from Guardian writers, and anything else that catches my eye. This means that what I write is accessible to non-specialist readers, which is gives it special value.
I believe that the most important ideas can be understood by everyone with a questioning mind, and should not be wrapped up in long, unusual words. Ordinary people can put them into practice if they understand them. Maybe I can dare to call them wisdom, a word used by reviewers of my book. This is a commodity we desperately need if the world is to find its way out of the current morass of evil, poverty, war and suffering, into a better life, which is our destiny. I pray God that my small contribution may be well used.
Averil Stedeford, January 2013