LOM ART to publish guide to kindness with 52 lives founder Jaime Thurston

LOM ART, the art-inspired imprint of Michael O’Mara Books, is to publish an interactive journal to encourage and inspire acts of kindness with Jaime Thurston, founder of the charity 52 Lives.

The Kindness Journal: Little Activities to Make a Big Difference is a practical journal featuring prompts and exercises to encourage readers to cultivate kind habits, and will publish on 7^th January 2021.

Featuring suggestions of simple actions, inspirational quotes and scientifically-supported facts, along with opportunities to reflect and record thoughts, this book is an indispensable guide to encourage kindness towards yourself and others, detailing the positive effects it can have on our physical and mental health. 

Jaime Thurston is the founder of 52 Lives, a charity that aims to change a life every week of the year with the help of almost 100,000 kind strangers. Creating a global movement of people who come together each week to spread kindness and change lives, her charity was chosen by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex as one of their ‘Forces for Change’ in 2019. Regularly featured in the press as a ‘kindness expert’, Jaime was named Clarins/YOU Magazine Woman of the Year and received a Points of Light Award from the Prime Minister in 2016, and was included in the Independent’s Happy List of 50 people in the country who make life better for others in 2018.

Jaime Thurston said: “The world can feel like it’s going a bit mad sometimes. The news is filled with horror stories and social media seem to be making us more isolated and more polarised in our views…but that isn’t reality. People are good and the world is filled with kind people. If the last 6 months has shown us anything, it’s that when everything else gets stripped away, we’re left with what really matters – compassion, human connection and kindness. 

“Kindness is not a luxury, or something that’s just ‘nice to have’- it’s essential for our collective wellbeing. I hope this little book helps inspire people to incorporate more kindness into their day-to-day life, and to think more deeply about the impact kindness has on their own physical and mental health.”

Louise Dixon, Senior Editorial Director at Michael O’Mara Books, said: “Kindness is something we all have to give and we all need, regardless of status or background. The current global effort to protect our communities’ most vulnerable shows how kindness spreads and that when we are kind to others it lifts our spirits and improves our health. In this book, Jaime Thurston, founder of the charity 52 Lives, motivates and inspires readers to practice kindness as much for their own wellbeing as for the wellbeing of others.”

The Kindness Journal: Little Activities to Make a Big Difference will publish in paperback on 7^th January, priced £9.99. World All Language Rights were acquired by Louise Dixon from Jennifer Christie at the Graham Maw Christie Agency. A portion of royalties from the sale of the book will be donated to 52 Lives and pre-orders are available via Blackwells.

For more information contact: 

Saskia Angenent, Head of Publicity, Michael O’Mara Books Ltd | saskia.angenent@mombooks.com | 0207 819 5911 

• Michael O’Mara Books is an award-winning, independent publishing house known for their innovative and diverse non-fiction list, comprising best-selling biography, autobiography and lifestyle in addition to popular science and history. The company was set up thirty-five years ago and now, with a backlist of over a thousand titles, it is still a family firm, producing bestsellers and one hundred and fifty new books a year. Michael O’Mara’s children’s imprint, Buster Books, publishes commercial children’s activity and reference titles, and in 2015 the art-inspired imprint, LOM ART was launched. For more information, visit: www.mombooks.com
• 52 Lives: Every week, 52 Lives helps to change someone’s life. We choose someone in need of help, share their story on our website and social media, and request what that person needs. Our kind supporters then spread the word, offer help if they can, and we change that person’s life – and inspire more kindness in others.

The people we choose to help come from nominations made through our website (checks are made to ensure the requests are genuine). Over the years we have helped with a huge variety of things…from buying teeth for a man in Alabama; building a sensory shed for a toddler in South London who was losing her sight; making video messages for a young boy being bullied; supplying wheelchairs to children in the UK and China; buying furniture for women and children leaving refuges; helping a homeless mother and son into a flat; and sending a little girl and her grandma on a holiday after the death of her mother.

One of the unique things about 52 Lives is that 100 per cent of what people give goes to the person we are helping.

We’d love you to be part of our community. For more information, visit: www.52-lives.org