One morning, a young woman lay dying of multiple stab wounds on her own driveway. She came through the nightmare that followed, laughing. This book describes what happened. Julie Chimes tells of her out-of-body experiences during the crisis as well as dreams and premonitions leading up to it. She recounts the frenzied attack by a paranoid schizophrenic, a woman just taken off her controlling medicine. She offers answers to questions too seldom asked about the way society treats victims of violence and the mentally ill. She describes what it feels like to die, and then unforseeably, to live to tell the tale. This is a real-life drama; a story of crime due to mental illness; a story about survival; the battle to regain physical and mental well-being; a woman's quest for truth; and an account of false accusation and injustice.
In the eighties Julie Chimes worked in the media based London's Fleet Street. Company director, businesswoman and part-time racing driver her world underwent a dramatic change when an out-of-the-blue attempt on her life left her for dead. Viciously stabbed repeatedly within millimetres of her life her subsequent survival was considered to be something of a miracle. She wrote a profound yet humorous autobiographical account of her experiences, both in and out of body, A Stranger in Paradise, which was first published by Bloomsbury, London. The book was distributed on three continents and translated into six further languages creating a wave of positive media attention around the world. The extraordinary story was also the subject of a critically acclaimed BBC documentary, which she scripted and co directed.
Leaving the world of convention behind Julie has spent the last twenty years living abroad. She has travelled extensively during this time whilst encountering the weird and wonderful in her quest to understand the true purpose of life. Stepdaughter of the legendary comedian Max Wall, daughter of one of world's most beautiful women, and sister to a wonderful soul with autism, her unconventional upbringing gave her a love of finding mirth in the midst of the mundane, and a passion for story telling. A gifted speaker, she has addressed and entertained diverse audiences around the world sharing the experiences of her many adventures and fresh insights on life and death.
After facing her own mortality she vowed to 'try on' as many lives as possible. Olive farmer,facilitator of international retreats and workshops on meditation, garden designer, chief cook, host and bottle washer for an restaurant located in her own Andalusian patio, international property and pet sitter and life counsellor to name a few, whilst receiving an unorthodox training as a singer in the basement of a brothel and performing as a soloist in some equally unlikely venues.
Having gathered a wealth of original material, Julie is now dedicated to holistic healing and writing. Passionate about projects that have the power to uplift, amuse and inspire humanity, she is currently running 'Journey to The Heart' workshops and retreats, and working on a book about forgiveness, children's stories, and a second book about her adventures planned for the future. In 2008 she was honoured in the USA as a 'Hero of Forgiveness', by the World Wide Forgiveness Alliance. She shares her time between Spain, France and the UK, where she lives with her editor husband Richard in hidden places away from the marauding British investors. You may contact Julie Chimes by using the following link -
http://www.societyofauthors.org/search_pages/author-detail.html?id=6983
