The Magic of Metaphor: 77 Stories for Teachers, Trainers and Thinkers

I found the stories very easy to follow, and some exceptionally humorous, which immediately raised my own spirits. I have already begun to share some of the stories found within this book on my seminars and seen others ‘get the insight’ or have their spirits raised too.

One of the strengths of this book is that it contains short anecdotal stories as well as the more long winded versions. Thereby catering for different lengths of presentations. The sub-sections are useful in that cover different aspects of leadership which is paramount to the world of self-actualisation.

Again, my personal recommendation would be that this is a book sold in audio format alongside the book, so that the reader is listening to the audio and reading at the same time. This would make a big impact in the learning of the principles that is integral to each story.

The author has also done well to recommend different ways of using the stories within different situations, which enables trainers, teachers and therapists to understand how they can adapt the stories to suit their clients needs. I also like the fact that the author understands that importance of acknowledging sources where possible. Very often people forget to acknowledge their sources and as a result many people believe that the information being shared has only just been discovered, where in fact it has existed for millennia, and the magic is when each of us is able to bring that higher truth interpretation to the ears and hearts of others that inspires, touches and motivates them to take up a call to action.


a great book for teachers and thinkers   December 8, 2001
20 out of 27 found this review helpful

I am an English teacher in Vienna and this book is one of the best I've ever read because all those stories are great fun to read and also perfect for teaching students in English (older ones of course!) - they really like these stories and start thinking without being told to do so - which is quite amazing and certainly one of the aims of the author. Highly recommendable!


Magic of Metaphor is a useful book for teachers of English   September 15, 2001
15 out of 19 found this review helpful

1. Book review by Jim Wingate - The Magic of Metaphor: 77 stories for Teachers, Trainers and Thinkers by Nick Owen.

This is a very useful book for teachers of English. You can use it privately as an entertaining read for your own self-development. You can publicly apply the wisdom and challenges of the stories in your teaching. You can publicly tell the stories as they are (or read them aloud or adapt or translate them) as rich, deep, stimulus material for your learners. And you can give the stories as text for your learners' self-development and their responses in groups.