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The Interior Silence

The Search for Peace of Mind

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The Interior Silence

By: Sarah Sands
Narrated by: Sarah Sands
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About this listen

Suffering from information overload, unable to sleep, Sarah Sands, former editor of the BBC's Today programme, has tried many different strategies to de-stress...only to reject them because, as she says, all too often they threaten to become an exercise in self-absorption.

Inspired by the ruins of an ancient Cistercian abbey at the bottom of her Norfolk garden, she begins to research the lives of the monks who once resided there and realises how much we may have to learn from monasticism.

Renouncing the world, monks and nuns have acquired a hidden knowledge of how to live: they labour, they learn and they acquire 'the interior silence'. This book is a quest for that hidden knowledge - a pilgrimage to ten monasteries round the world.

From a Coptic desert community in Egypt to a retreat in the Japanese mountains, we follow Sands as she identifies the common characteristics of monastic life and the wisdoms to be learned from them; and as she discovers, behind the cloistered walls, a clarity of mind and an unexpected capacity for solitude which enable her, after years of insomnia, to experience that elusive, dreamless sleep.

©2021 Sarah Sands (P)2021 Octopus Publishing Group Alternative & Complementary Medicine Meditation Travel Writing & Commentary Middle East

Critic reviews

"Inspirational." (The Daily Mail)

"Sarah Sands has written about stillness with an eloquence that fizzes with vitality and wit. This wonderful book charts a journey to some of the most beautiful and tranquil places on earth, and introduces us to people whose inner peace is a balm for our troubled times. I loved every page of it." (Nicholas Hytner)
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I found this pleasant and soothing to listen to but I’m afraid it constantly reminded me of a particular type of holiday review that often appears in the Sunday supplements. A kind of navel gazing travelogue which must be the sole preserve of the wealthy or paid for by a corporate organisation of some sort. The name of Boris Johnson even appears in connection with visits to a castle owned by Evgeny Lebedev near Perugia, visits which the author helped to organise. I once went there for a family wedding as for a while it was a grand hotel and believe me it’s about as far from Francis of Assisi as you could possibly get. The author absolutely acknowledges this of course and contrasts St Francis’ own life with it as one of extreme frugality and asceticism but it made me feel uncomfortable. Possibly I am being unfair as the author makes that exact point but nonetheless there’s an awful lot of expensive travelling, gorgeous food and autobiographical waffling. However it was pleasant to listen to a little ramble through Japan, Tuscany etc with gentle narration and obvious points made about retreat, mindfulness, spirituality and so on. But if you’re interested in the idea of following in the footsteps of this particular pilgrim, make sure you’ve got plenty of money.

A very expensive pilgrimage

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A fascinating topic but the project was interrupted by the pandemic. The book should have been delayed but the author continues travelling all over Europe, often only one step ahead of the pandemic. Why the rush?

Should have been delayed

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Its not about lessons or a guide. Its not informational unless you count the long lists of facts raffled off most likely to pad out the book. Its an autobiography where she travels to visit monks. Its mainly about the writer not really about monastic life.

should have been called my journey visiting...

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