Losada, an English actress, singer and TV producer, detailed her New Age search for happiness in her previous book, The Battersea Park Road to Enlightenment.
Now she turns away from the "tummy-button" of her search for personal happiness to take on social action on behalf of Tibet, harshly occupied by China, and its leader in exile, the Dalai Lama. Losada is disappointed by British organizations working in support of an autonomous Tibet, because they don't necessarily embrace the Dalai Lama ("the sanest voice on the planet"). To ease her frustration, Losada makes some contacts, develops a Web site and dreams up some publicity schemes, including "tits for Tibet," involving topless women in a van. Cooler heads prevail, and the author settles for a parachutist jumping from Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square while unfurling a picture of the Dalai Lama, a stunt that attracts international news coverage. Losada also travels to Tibet and falls in love with a monk. An audience she has with the Dalai Lama is recounted in glowing terms. She seems unfamiliar with political, historical and religious complexities, but there's no doubt that Losada is a good-humored, hard-working activist for Tibet. Her heart is in the right place, but much of the time her head doesn't follow. Illus. not seen by PW
. Agents, Jonathan Lloyd and Christy Fletcher. (On sale June 1)
