Book review – ‘The Effect – where science meets spirituality’
By Linda Hoy

Published September 2012 by O-Books, £9.99, pp 271.

Linda Hoy has tackled a vastly important subject with her characteristic panache and energy. Don’t be fooled by the jaunty style – this book will make you think again and again. Down-to-earth, irreverent, witty, self-deprecating, intimate, it is nevertheless far-ranging and hard-hitting. Linda Hoy spreads lashings of common sense through both science and spirituality, and she somehow brings the two together without too violent a collision – an antidote for anyone who takes either too solemnly. She shows us how she herself moved from arch-atheism to a spiritual way, but retained enough of her original scepticism to keep her away from credulity or excessive piety – Linda is not holier than thou. As an experienced author, her book is totally readable – you will keep turning the pages, partly so as to link it all up, but mainly to see what will happen next. Thoroughly recommended. My only, not criticism but ‘nit-pick,’ is that it has clearly been aimed at the American market, and thus some Americanisms have crept in – some phrasing which doesn’t sound Sheffield or English but trans-Atlantic.

Paul Hunt