Gilbert, Elizabeth – The Bell Bookshop

All the Way to the River

Emma — Tue, 09 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

A WATERSTONES BEST BOOK OF SEPTEMBER 2025

‘No one who reads this book will ever forget it‘ Meg Mason
‘An absolute masterclass and truth-bomb ? I think many people will be shaken awake by this book‘ Emma Gannon

In her first non-fiction book in a decade, the no. 1 bestselling writer who taught millions of readers to live authentically (Eat Pray Love) and creatively (Big Magic) shows how to break free.

In 2000, Elizabeth Gilbert met Rayya. They became friends, then best friends, then inseparable. When tragedy entered their lives, the truth was finally laid bare: the two were in love. They were also a pair of addicts, on a collision course toward catastrophe.

What if your most beautiful love story turned into your biggest nightmare? What if the dear friend who taught you so much about your self-destructive tendencies became the unstable partner with whom you disastrously reenacted every one of them? And what if your most devastating heartbreak opened a pathway to your greatest awakening?

All the Way to the River is a landmark memoir that will resonate with anyone who has ever been captive to love – or to any other passion, substance or craving – and who yearns, at long last, for liberation.

City of Girls

Emma — Tue, 07 Apr 2020 00:00:00 +0000

______________**A SUNDAY TIMES TOP TEN BESTSELLER*****A BOOK CLUB PICK FROM THE QUEEN CONSORT’S READING ROOM***______________‘Stunning’ – Lisa Taddeo, author of THREE WOMEN‘Warm and wise’ – Stephanie Merritt, Observer‘Glamorous, sexy, compelling’ – Dolly Alderton, Sunday Times‘I fell in love with Vivian from page one’ – Daisy Buchanan‘An education in love, and an iridescent delight’ – Rowan Pelling, Spectator______________New York, 1940. Young, glamorous and inseparable, Vivian and Celia are chasing trouble from one end of the city to the other. But there is risk in all this play – that’s what makes it so fun, and so dangerous. Sometimes, the world may feel like it’s ending, but for Vivian and Celia, life is just beginning.City of Girls is about daring to break conventions and follow your desires: a celebration of glamour, resilience, growing up, and the joys of female friendship – and about the freedom that comes from finding a place you truly belong. ______________‘There is so much to love in City of Girls‘ – Independent‘Wherever Liz Gilbert goes, we’ll follow’ – Oprah magazine, Best book releases‘Sensational’ – Cosmopolitan‘As bubbly as a champagne cocktail but with a real kick in the tail’ – Sunday Express‘Explores female desire in a radically refreshing way’ – independent.co.uk‘Brilliant on female friendship, desire and the influence a good mentor can bring to enrich a young woman’s life’ – Grazia Summer Reads

Big Magic

Emma — Thu, 22 Sep 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Readers of all ages and walks of life have drawn inspiration from Elizabeth Gilbert's books for years. Now, this beloved author shares her wisdom and unique understanding of creativity, shattering the perceptions of mystery and suffering that surround the process - and showing us all just how easy it can be. By sharing stories from her own life, as well as those from her friends and the people that have inspired her, Elizabeth Gilbert challenges us to embrace our curiosity, tackle what we most love and face down what we most fear.

Eat Pray Love

Emma — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 00:00:00 +0000

It’s 3 a.m. and Elizabeth Gilbert is sobbing on the bathroom floor. She’s in her thirties, she has a husband, a house, they’re trying for a baby – and she doesn’t want any of it. A bitter divorce and a turbulent love affair later, she emerges battered and bewildered and realises it is time to pursue her own journey in search of three things she has been missing: pleasure, devotion and balance. So she travels to Rome, where she learns Italian from handsome, brown-eyed identical twins and gains twenty-five pounds, an ashram in India, where she finds that enlightenment entails getting up in the middle of the night to scrub the temple floor, and Bali where a toothless medicine man of indeterminate age offers her a new path to peace: simply sit still and smile. And slowly happiness begins to creep up on her.