'David is a true philosopher, great journalist and excellent writer. He has gone where others only imagine trading, and the book is packed with gags, wisdom and pathos. It actually IS a must-read.'
Tom Hodgkinson, The Idler
SYNOPSIS
When David Bramwell’s partner left him for someone she described as 'younger, but more mature', he knew he had a thing or two to learn about life. Taking a year off, he journeyed through Europe and America seeking out extraordinary communities that could teach him how to be a more sharing, loving person.
His quest led him to ashrams, an anarchist haven in the heart of Copenhagen; Findhorn, a Scottish spiritual retreat favoured by Ruby Wax, a paradisal community in Californian dreamt up by Aldous Huxley, and an entire eco-city being built in the Arizona desert. Most impressive of all was Damanhur, a 1000-strong community in the Alps who, over 23 years, secretly built a giant underground temple the size of St Paul's Cathedral, a village of tree houses and toured Europe with an orchestra of singing plants.
Along the way David’s quest raised issues that best many of us. Why is there so much unhappiness amongst those with wealth and relative freedom? Is getting what you want really utopia? Could alternative communities teach us a better way to be in both our relationships and our modern cities?
Inspired by his adventures David returned home with a desire to change. Not just himself but also his neighbourhood and city. Find out how he succeeded in this humorous and uplifting one-man show that asks some big questions and finds the answers surprisingly simple.
David Bramwell’s tireless search for Utopia sounds like a Boy’s Own adventure. That he manages to convey his travel tales, thoughts and experiences and keep his audience engaged and entertained is quite a feat. He carries it off with natural charm, fluency and wit. It’s lovely storytelling; not rambling and not patronising to the communities he visits (however easily parodied). It has the zeal of a real enthusiast for alternative ways of living, albeit one with a hot-tub obsession!
LIsa Wolfe Total Theatre
The No9 Bus to Utopia talk at Bosco Tent Brighton Festival 2015
PRAISE FOR THE NO9 BUS TO UTOPIA
'I loved this book - warm, funny and enlightening.'
Suzy Greaves (Editor, Psychologies)
'I love this book, its cutting observation tempered by an affection and openness to his fellow travellers is as compassionate as it is funny. David Bramwell has written a very important book pretending to be otherwise.'
Tim Smit (Dir. Eden Project)
'I was so gripped, I read the whole thing in less than two days.'
Abigail Ann (Good Reads)
'Amusing and illuminating. Bramwell moves through the various attempts at utopia like a spiritually questing Arthur Dent – a seeker, as his late friend Ken Campbell said, but one with a sense of humour.'
Marcus O'Dair (Guardian Book of the Year author, Robert Wyatt: Different Every Time)
‘One of the best non-fiction books I read in 2014 (and I read a lot) – David Bramwell’s worldwide search for the perfect community is honest, charming, revelatory and often hilarious. A real eye-opener.’
Stevyn Colgan (QI elf)
'The anti-Heart of Darkness; from the excruciating and the scrotum-tightening to the life-affirming and downright joyous. '
Dunstan Bruce (Chumbawamba)
'Number 9 Bus to Utopia is a warm, funny, and oddly moving book. Dr Bramwell's personal odyssey of bewildered self-discovery brilliantly captures the eternal lure or stepping off the established path and wandering through the forest - when you don't know where you are going, you are never bored. Highly recommended.'
John Higgs (author of KLF, Alternative History of the 20th Century)
