About the Author

Internationally acclaimed poet David Whyte makes his home in the Pacific Northwest, where rain and changeable skies remind him of the other, more distant homes from which he comes: Yorkshire, Wales and Ireland. He holds a degree in Marine Zoology, honorary degrees from Neumann University in Pennsylvania and Royal Roads University in Victoria, British Columbia, and is an Associate Fellow of the Said Business School at the University of Oxford. He is the author of eight volumes of poetry and four books of prose, as well as a collection of audio recordings.

Reviews

Keep this book by your bedside forever. I know I will
*ELIZABETH GILBERT, author of EAT PRAY LOVE*

Consolations, it bears repeating, is an absolutely magnificent read - the kind that reorients your world and remains a compass for a lifetime
*MARIA POPOVA*

We think we know what we are talking about, the meaning of things, the basic rules of language, until we read David Whyte's Consolations where we are forced to reassess everything and begin again. Such an essential and beautiful book'
*NICK CAVE*

A word can know you better than you know yourself and I did not fully understand this until I read Consolations. It is an immensely powerful book. It is an extraordinary book . . . You will want to keep it forever
*LEMN SISSAY*

Sometimes a book you had never heard of resonates so profoundly that it leaves you wondering how you hadn't come across it. This is such a book, one that shakes you to the core and speaks to you in an intimate aside, a considered whisper that echoes through your days long after you turned the last page . . . Fully aware and observant
* * The Lady * *

Elegant, tiny essays on the consoling power of words, written by one of my favorite living poets. I think Whyte is as much a mystic as an author, and this book proves it. Beautiful, soulful, thoughtful
*ELIZABETH GILBERT*

Pasternak once said Chekhov had the perfect blend of sympathy and irony toward his characters. David Whyte's essays have the same: they rescue us without letting us off the hook, they lay bare our self-delusions while showing us that right there, where we least expect it, an innocence is waiting to be recovered. Who knew such penetrating, much-needed wisdom could be such a delight
*HENRY SHUKMAN, Zen teacher, author of ORIGINAL LOVE and co-founder of THE WAY*