In search of the story

It began one hectic afternoon in 1976 at the Daily Mail, the fast, national paper in the hub of London’s Fleet Street. I was frantically meeting a deadline as a feature writer when the telephone rang. It was a friend, Leslie Kenton, health and beauty editor of Harpers & Queen, who wanted to speak to the editor. He wasn’t in, so I asked what she was up to. “I’m going to Nepal to meditate with the Lamas for a month. I’m leaving in three weeks.” “How wonderful!” I heard myself say. “Come with me,” she replied.

I’d never read a book on Buddhism, never seen a Tibetan Lama, had no notion of meditation, and had no secret wish to go to Kathmandu. Yet, somehow it seemed right. As a journalist,