When passion and a voice mixes with a beautiful Buddhist country in need.

Isobel’s perseverance and naturally kind and giving personality is catching. Her recent revelation of hearing about the Tibetan ‘revolution’ by the Chinese in the 1970s caused her to act, and then write this book. The Tibetan’s troubles which had basically gone un-heard of and ignored worldwide rung true within her, which it did with me too.

Isobel asked herself the questions ‘how much of a difference can one person really make?’. Then she answered it, and it turns out, an awful lot. Her experiences, shear passion, triumphs and actions went a long way.

For Tibet, With Love, is writer, activists and empowering Isobel Losada’s account of reaching out and helping a cause she so strongly believed in and was more than passionate about. Isobel restored the faith within the ‘everyman’ in being able to do something, to stand up and say no to a cause we believe in. Upon learning about the 14^th Dalai Lama’s exile, the invasion of Tibet by China under the pretence of a ‘cultural revolution’, Isobel doesn’t simply say ‘how sad, how awful’; she stands up and does something about it.

Starting from her flat in London, Isobel researched, rung, approached and joined in every Tibet contact, charity, organisation she could get her activist hands on.

She used the lines from a prayer to guide her on her lovingly mad expedition;

‘God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,/ The courage to change the things I can,/ And the wisdom to know the difference’.

This features heavily in the book. She sets about using this prayer to her best ability throughout her brave conquest. She begins with:

‘How do I acquire serenity to accept what I cannot change? What exactly is courage and how can I use it to change the things I can? And will I ever have the wisdom to know the difference?’.

Isobel’s inspiring behaviour and attitude is reflected in her writing and tone. She is continually upbeat, even when continual problems face her acting as physical and metaphorical obstacles in her path. Anecdotes and jokes occur often and it is obvious she speaks form the heart. This is more than a warm, entertaining and moving novel.

From visits to Nepal, spending time with monks, meetings with the Chinese ambassador in London, actually going to Tibet and finally cultivating in the best of all, actually meeting the Dalai Lama, Isobel achieves the unthinkable and brings Tibet’s story to the front of western newspapers and the attention of the world on a grand ‘stunt’ like scale.

Throughout the real-life account, the reader is too on a journey, one of knowledge, travel and even spirituality. If the reader has had no prior experience with Tibet and little knowledge, Isobel freely introduces it into the reader’s life, not forcefully, but passionately. Reading it, it seems the reader cannot sympathise with her woe. It may not make you want to jump out of an aeroplane with a huge banner, but it brings light and life to the Tibetan situation in a light hearted way.

The book is not merely one with an attractive front cover, authored by someone who appears to have a little too much time on her hands and a little too much compassion; it provides a wealth of knowledge for how to get involved with the cause and the history behind it. It is truthful, informative and above all, inspiring.

If thought provoking quips and endearing passages on life and the philosophic subjective meaning behind it appeal to you, Isobel has it sussed in her perfectly balanced humorous, political and meaningful writing.

Isobel set out to make a difference by herself. She made a huge difference to me.

After recommending the book to my mother, she struggled to get into it. I feel its down to passion. Since watching a film on the Tibet issue earlier this year, I became fascinated with a country invaded, ruined and forced to exile in the name of a ‘cultural revolution’. Culture and travel is my passion.

I visited India in September of this year (2013). Although I would have loved to have visited Tibet (which I will still call the county this and not it’s supposed proper name of the Chinese Autonomous Region of Tibet), time, money and visas hindered me. The next best thing was to spend time in Mcleod Ganj, upper Dhraramsala, northern India – otherwise known as Little Lahsa. I was lucky enough to see His Holiness the 14^th Dalai Lama and attending his three day teaching. It was about as close as Tibet as I will get to… for now.