Name: Switching On Again
Brand: Austin Macauley Publishers
SKU: 9781037129735
Price: 14.99 GBP
Availability: InStock
Rating: 5 (3 reviews)
Author: Gillian Clezy

In this sequel to SWITCHBACK: An Inner and Outer Journey, Gillian Clezy continues to explore the interwoven strands of her life: personal, professional, emotional, and religious. It is a remarkable journey, both geographically (taking in England, Australia, America, Switzerland, Hong Kong, and China) and psychologically. In her 50s, she stepped back from her profession as a speech therapist (to which she had made important contributions to the theory as well as the practice) and trained in Zurich, gaining a four-year postgraduate diploma in Jungian analytical psychology.

That training allows her to reflect deeply on her life experiences in a way that is both instructive and illuminating, exploring and bringing to consciousness as she does many of the unconscious motives to which we are all subject. Periods of tremendous joy and tenderness and experiences of great sorrow and struggles are unflinchingly recounted, during which we, the general reader, may find ourselves reflecting on the inner processes and meaning of our individual, unique lives. As I commented about SWITCHBACK, so too is SWITCHING ON AGAIN “a treasure of a book”.

– Richard Skinner

poet and (as R. N. F. Skinner) novelist

Get Ready to Go!

It is 1967. A young mother takes some washing to the launderette in her English village, knowing it will be the last time she does so. She, her Australian husband, and two very young children will be setting out to cross the world by sea and land in a couple of days. They are all set to go. She is looking forward to the carefully planned adventure. She is used to adventures. She spies an attractive young woman jauntily walking along the pavement between her and the laundrette. A young man is following her.

Within a few minutes, that pretty young woman is lying dead, and the would-be traveller, this writer, has been the only witness. How? Why?

Gillian Clezy was born in England before World War II by which time she was happily living with her parents in Istanbul. Much of her childhood was then spent in war time Egypt and early boarding school in England, with many a hazardous journey between. By 1960, Gillian had qualified, begun work and was married to a young Australian. Despite the welcome birth of two little boys, they both longed to travel—and they did—camping across the world to Australia! Settling in Melbourne Gillian became an academic. Confusingly the marriage did not last. Her career slowly expanded across the world through teaching and writing as she too kept learning. She finally settled at The University of Hong Kong while also working for the WHO in mainland China and enjoying time spent with her two sons and grandson. Gillian later decided on a new career and studied for four years at the Carl Jung Institute in Zurich to become an analytical psychologist for the next twenty-five years of her life. That life is still full. She keeps writing as the clock keeps ticking!

Customer Reviews

5.0

3 reviews

Dr Mary Raftopoulos

In the second book of her memoirs – Switch On – Gill takes us with her as her adult life unfolds in the most interesting and surprising of ways, across England to North America, Australia, China, Hong Kong and Zurich. We are transported in time and place as Gill skilfully weaves the inner and outer life, Jungian theory and the power of faith on her relationships, family and career. This is a deeply personal story of a long life well lived. It is written eloquently and shared with an intimacy that leaves the reader feeling moved and inspired to live their own life to the fullest. And it is a poignant reminder that to be truly alive means accepting that life is filled with change, adventure and endless opportunities for transformation and growth.
Elizabeth Hodges

A triumph of memoir writing. This mammoth undertaking invites readers in to Gillian’s remarkable life with honesty, generosity and wisdom. Through experiences of Christian faith, Jungian learning, travel, family, relationships, work and profound loss, she captures the full spectrum of the human experience. Completely and deeply engaging, it was impossible to put down until the very end.
Ann Zubrick

Some books and stories are meant to be read without stopping and then marked or referred to as READ and ticked off the list. This isn’t one of them! Rather for me as a reader this story covers a life from young adulthood and motherhood through to increasingly old age— an almost seventy very fully lived years—as an adventure not to be missed. This is a book to be read more than once: one to be shared and discussed with friends and family members, and across generations. One to bring to your book club and give as a gift to someone struggling with a relationship, troubling circumstance, and indecision about where and to whom they might turn. Share it as widely and wisely as you can!