{"id":156,"date":"2014-10-05T15:53:37","date_gmt":"2014-10-05T15:53:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shirtyletters.com\/?page_id=156"},"modified":"2025-07-03T15:11:32","modified_gmt":"2025-07-03T15:11:32","slug":"about-the-author","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/shirtyletters.com\/?page_id=156","title":{"rendered":"About the author"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"image_pdf\"<\/a>\"image_print\"<\/a><\/div>

\"Bookshelves_Jamie\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This is an extract from the Summer 2014 newsletter of Being Alongside<\/a>:<\/p>\n

It is a great honour to be appointed Chairman of any organisation , let alone one so inspiring as \u00a0Being Alongside \/ APCMH. \u00a0For those of you who have never heard of me I was born in 1954 , brought up in the Cotswolds , educated at Eton and Christ Church , Oxford. Such a gilded youth was squandered \u00a0by a predeliction for marijuana which led to several psychotic episodes involving stays at The Priory and Springfield \u00a0– \u00a0whilst my peers were prospering I was running an organic bakery , then a drop-in centre for Hammersmith & Fulham MIND and latterly mini-cabbing.<\/p>\n

\"child_reading\"An avid reader at an early age<\/em><\/p>\n

I first came across the wonderful work of APCMH in Autumn\u00a01995 , meeting Jeremy Boutwood , Pam Freeman and John Vallatt at a Guild of Health seminar. \u00a0Jeremy lent me his copy of Jean Vanier’s\u00a0The Broken Body . <\/em>May I quote from my thank-you letter to him at that time …<\/p>\n

‘ It beats me how so very few people within the Church really want to know … APCMH should be a vast concern with a cast of thousands ! There is so much emotional \/ spiritual distress in our world that committed Christians could address … If the Church fails you \u00a0– \u00a0God help you ; which fortunately He does ! ‘<\/em><\/p>\n

Although never successful as a businessman I have managed to walk hundreds of miles across the United Kingdom , have journeyed overland from the top to the bottom of the Americas , from London to Nepal and back through Iran and Afghanistan . As a result I now speak three languages passably plus a smattering of many others.<\/p>\n

\"Jamie_sitting\"<\/p>\n

At Glastonbury, having walked from Winchester via Salisbury\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Whatever you do in life do it to the best of your ability . I shall endeavour to live up to that maxim as your new Chairman.<\/p>\n

Jamie Summers \u00a0Incoming Chair<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\"Christening\"All my sisters and cousins after my christening \nat Bourton-on-the-Hill, Gloucestershire<\/em><\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This is an extract from the Summer 2014 newsletter of Being Alongside: It is a great honour to be appointed Chairman of any organisation , let alone one so inspiring as \u00a0Being Alongside \/ APCMH. \u00a0For those of you who have never heard of me I was born in 1954 , brought up in the … Continue reading About the author<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":2,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/shirtyletters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/156"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/shirtyletters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/shirtyletters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/shirtyletters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/shirtyletters.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=156"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"http:\/\/shirtyletters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/156\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":900,"href":"http:\/\/shirtyletters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/156\/revisions\/900"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/shirtyletters.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}