Lucy Edge's name will be familiar to many on account of her first, and successful book, Yoga School Drop Out - an immensely entertaining account of the author's quest for spiritual riches in India.
Her second book, The Handbag and Welllies Yoga Club, published in August 2009, is altogether a quieter, more grown-up story.
It tells the story of how Edge, just turned 40 and firmly ensconced with her new man, leaves The Angry City, as she refers to London, for a farmhouse in rural Norfolk.
Edge's rationale for swapping London life for a far quieter existence is party due to an overwhelming desire for a slower, gentler pace of life. Most Londoners (or city dwellers in general) will be familiar with the following sentiments.
She writes: 'Everyone, including me, was angry - the motorist with a face twisted with rage because I hadn't reacted in the required nanosecond to the change in the lights, the young peacock on the Tube pushing past me as he pushed his jeans down so they barely held his buttocks; the woman behind me in the check-out queue who took my shopping off the conveyor below when I popped to get a forgotten loaf of bread...
'This anger I felt, this flash of need to have my presence on this plant acknowledged, seemed to be a collective emotion - one that was finding every more extreme outlets in teenage knife attacks and gun crime.'
Like any new start, however, the transition from urban to rural life was not an easy one. Edge writes that the first month in Norfolk 'was characterised by a fizzing impatience as my body clock struggled to adjust to the time difference in what felt, at times, like a different country.'
There was something else she missed about London: the high standard of yoga at yoga meccas such as Triyoga; and the sense of community (and friendship) going to regular yoga classes had brought. As Edge puts it, in Norfolk she was struggling to find her Tribe.
Various attempts at trying out local church hall classes made her feel, if anything, even further from her usual yoga environment: in one passage, she writes of a hall that 'wasn't quite what I'd been used to - in place of Triyoga's stained glass windows and a Zen white ceiling there were nine electric heaters suspended from the ceiling and a disco ball.'
But it wasn't just about the immediate environment - Edge found the yoga classes far too gentle, and the other students, a good twenty years older than her.
In principle, of course, none of this should matter. In reality, just about everyone who attends yoga classes regularly knows that finding the right environment, teacher, approach and standard of class is absolutely essential (and often a challenge).
All this changes, however, when Edge stumbles across The Lotus Room in Norwich and takes thankful refuge in well taught, challenging ashtanga classes, led by Kiki, a lithe, buff 43-year old who soon became a good friend.
Edge's discovery of The Lotus Room led her to a vinyasa flow class in nearby Beccles, led by Kate. In time, Lucy, Kiki and Kate become staunch 'Bad Lady' friends, brought together by a love of yoga, yet partial to a spot of un-yogic living in the form of regular Pinot Grigio sessions.
As well as the yoga theme running through the book, Edge tackles another, more emotive and universal subject - and one familiar to many women from around the age of 35 to 45: the quest to get pregnant later in life.
Edge and her man, who she met at 41, start trying for a baby as soon as they reach Norfolk - and Edge recounts their trials and tribulations with a huge amount of honesty, and not a little heartache.
In many ways, The Handbag and Wellies Yoga Club is a more universal book than Yoga School DropOut, because of the issues it tackles - such as fertility and love found later in life - head on.
It's an easy, entertaining read, though the plot suffers a little from the absence of a big storyline (as opposed to fast living London girl taking off on a spiritual journey to India) and all the opportunity for colour and personality this brings.
I was sad, however, when I had reached the end. Ultimately, Edge writes about the ability to accept life's chosen path, and the way yoga helps us to reach this level of acceptance, and openness, to whatever we are confronted with.
Review by Lucia Cockcroft, editor
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