The No.9 Bus to Utopia

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When David Bramwell's girlfriend left him for someone she described as 'younger, but more mature than you', and citing his endless 'selfish projects' as a reason for their relationship breakdown, he decided he had something to learn about giving. So he embarked on a project.

Taking a year off, he journeyed through Europe and America seeking out extraordinary communities that could teach him about how to share. Why? He had a few questions he wanted to answer: Is modern life rubbish? Why do so many of us feel lonely and unfulfilled despite a high standard of living? Are there communities out there who hold the key to happiness? And if so, why do so many of their inhabitants insist on dressing in tie-dye? Where?

On his travels he visited an anarchist community in the heart of Copenhagen, had some hair-raising experiences in several free love communities, experienced an epiphany in a spiritual caravan park in Scotland and thought he'd found paradise in a Californian community dreamed up by Aldous Huxley. Most impressive of all was Damanhur, a 1000-strong science fiction-style community in the Alps with an underground temple the size of St Paul's Cathedral, a village of tree houses and a 'fully-functioning time machine'. What happened?

Inspired by the people and places he visited, he returned home with a desire to change. Not just himself but also his neighbourhood and city. Find out how he succeeded in this wry and self-deprecatingly funny spiritual journey that asks some big questions and finds the answers surprisingly simple.