Getting into the Spirit of things...

My latest book may not be the sort of thing that many people would read, but I hope you'll find my thoughts on it interesting.  I've just finished 'Joyful Voices' by Doris Stokes, an omnibus of her last two autobiographies 'Voices of Love' and 'Joyful Voices'.

In case you're not aware of her, Doris Stokes was a famous medium in the 1970s and '80s.  More specifically, she was called 'clairaudient' because she heard the voices of dead people rather than seeing manifestations of them.  In this book, she talks about her day-to-day life and encounters with grieving families, celebrities and, of course, those in the Spirit World.

'Joyful Voices' by
Doris Stokes
(Sphere 2007)

It can be easy to dismiss people's beliefs as ridiculous, but it's harder to dismiss the person.  That's certainly true of Mrs Stokes.  Whether you agree with her belief in the afterlife or not, it's hard to think her a bad person when she seems to just want to help people to come to terms with their loss.  She comes across as quite a kind hearted person and the book is carried along by her constant optimism and hope for better to come.

I rather liked the style of the book.  It's episodic and chatty and very easy to read, much like a magazine, so it wasn't at all hard going.  It was certainly what I needed after my encounter with Ernest Hemingway!

While it may not be high literature, the book is still an interesting curiosity.  It's fascinating to hear her normalise hearing voices and of particular interest was the transcript of her last sitting at the end of the book. It even led to me looking up some clips of Mrs Stokes on You Tube.  It's genuinely fascinating to see how her at work and I would recommend the clips to anyone interested in finding out more about her activities.

If you want to know more about Mrs Stokes, however, I would suggest that you don't start here.  I've read Mrs Stokes' first omnibus, 'Voices', which included 'Voices in My Ear' and 'More Voices in My Ear'.  I enjoyed the book very much, so, when I saw this one, I snapped it up too.  Unfortunately, it's not as good.  It's not really the author's fault, she was ailing and in her late sixties by the time she wrote her last two books and as a result she just doesn't get about as much as she used to.  As such, the stories become a bit repetitive and, in a strange way, mundane after a while.  The celebrity name dropping becomes irritating too, particularly as I didn't recognise some of the names at all.  There are even whole chapters dedicated to poems sent to her, which is both kinda sweet and irritating at the same time.  Equally, although she's right to not to preach through her books, it's a shame that she avoids the bad press entirely, as it would be interesting to hear her side of the argument.  It's almost as if she's saying "It's up to you love, but which is the nicer idea to live with?"

They say that if you open your mind too much, your brain will fall out, but you don't learn much by keeping it too closed either.  If you're interested in this sort of thing, start with 'Voices'.  If you're not interested in this sort of thing, I'd stay well away.  You're probably not going to enjoy it as the best you can hope to do is insulting a harmless old lady.  And that's a bit low, don't you think?