The Seagull (Paperback) | Released: 12 Dec 2013

Julie Stafford's 'The Seagull' is intimate and brave in its honest detail. A love story, it tests the boundaries of what we've become comfortable believing. Stafford's warm account of love reminds us how life sometimes knocks us down so we can rise higher, and how in the place we rise to, we so often find our higher, more evolved self. At fifty-three, when her husband passed from cancer, Julie Stafford took a journey way beyond the perimeters of her comfort zone. She explored who she could become in the next phase of her life without the man she'd loved for more than thirty years always by her side. Theirs was an unexpected love story that conquered the divide between two realities, paving the way for destiny to orchestrate its magic... She grieves lost love in Dubrovnik (a city reborn from grief and redefined by the lessons and scars of war). She reignites her spirit in the lessons of Italy's exuberance, and she asks Paris (city of love) if she's entitled to two extraordinary love stories in one lifetime. 'The Seagull' reminds us that age doesn't define who we are or who we can become, only love (the kind that makes us feel trembling happiness everyday) defines who we are and who we can become. In her pursuit to find what destiny had always written for her, Stafford takes chances. She trusts innate instinct. Her commitment to live every infinitesimal moment of life is inspiring. Her definitions of love will uplift you. You'll feel you're with her on the streets of destinations that called her to be healed from grief so she could find her new way. By story's end you'll be tempted to look inside your own journey and wonder about what might transpire if you follow the lead of Stafford's footsteps. Julie Stafford reminds us, if we want to fly, we need to give up everything that weighs us down. COLLECTOR'S EDITION: (In this edition, Julie Stafford shares 80 full-color photographic images from her personal collection to help the reader imagine they're traveling alongside her, and more than 20 exquisite seagull artworks born of her extraordinary journey).
About the Author: Thirty years on from changing a generation's eating habits, all because of her husband's cancer diagnosis, Julie Stafford will surprise her millions of cookbook followers. 'The Seagull' is the final chapter of an extraordinary love story Julie and husband Bruce shared and the beginning of a new chapter of love for Julie. Born in Melbourne, Australia, Julie grew up on a sheep farm, in rural Western Victoria. She studied art, becoming an art and craft teacher. Married in 1977, Bruce and Julie ran a sheep farm until Bruce was diagnosed with well-advanced Hodgkin's Lymphoma, in 1980. Bruce's survival odds were bleak, and so Julie put aside her love of all things art and began researching the link between diet and disease, and how diet might be a way to rebuild Bruce's immune system. She changed her family's way of life to help Bruce beat cancer. In little over a year Bruce beat those odds. Julie's research and efforts became Australia's fastest, and biggest selling cookbook, selling a record 1.2 million copies in Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and America. 'Taste of Life's' runaway success was followed with 22 more cookbook titles, all best-sellers, selling more than 2.2million copies. Best of all, Bruce beat the odds. Though many called 'Taste of Life' a cookbook, others called Julie's devotion to save Bruce's life, through food, a love story. In between cookbook writing, Julie was a popular presenter on cooking shows Australia-wide, New Zealand and America. She also wrote, 'Turn Obstacles to Opportunities' (later republished, and retitled 'Stepping Out'). A motivational best-seller, this book put Julie on the lucrative speaker's circuit. Her inspirational keynotes and workshops taught both the private and corporate sectors about living more meaningful lives. Inconceivably, Bruce was diagnosed with mesothelioma (terminal asbestos cancer) in 2003. He lost his fight in 2006. Alone, without the man she'd adored for more than thirty years, Julie set out on a journey to discover who she would become in the next chapter of her life. Along the way, she learned how one person's journey can be born and shaped from the example of another's journey; and how, if you turn up for life every day, paying attention to the small details of life, life has a way of producing unforeseen miracles. Julie didn't only live the story of 'The Seagull', she gave birth to the writer, resting, waiting, desperate to be born to fulfill destiny's plan.