Don't just pick this book up, read it and read it again. It’s the best Christian book I have read in years. This is a book that will inform, delight, and teach. It needs to be heard. It has the potential to light up Christianity. This is what happens when God is happening. It’s a brave book, expressing what it feels like to feel God. It shines a light on God in the midst of life, in the detail and the dirt, and it should be on every Christian’s reading list. Peter Owen-Jones, Anglican Priest, author and BBC TV presenter of "Extreme Pilgrim".

A similar message to Thomas Merton, acutely decribed and revealing. Scientific and Medical Network

The sub-title of this gem of a book,"the forgotten art of experiencing God in the depths of the present moment", really says it all. The author starts by reminding us of the wonder of being present as a fragile sentient being in the midst of this vast cosmos. This capacity for wonder depends on being rooted in the present moment. This rootedness, known in the Christian tradition as 'contemplation', is regarded as the highest form of prayer; but as the author shows, it is also paradoxically the basis of all other forms of prayer; for without the act of listening words remain mere verbiage. The Watkins Review  (Recommended Title; Fall 2007)

A heart-warming and inspiring reminder of the essence of Christian spiritual development. William Bloom, leading holistic teacher and writer. Author of Soulution; The Endorphin Effect and many other books

"From the Bottom of the Pond" is a profound, lucid and accessible book, full of wisdom and compassion. Timothy Freke, author of Lucid Living, (with Peter Gandy) of The Jesus Mysteries, Jesus and the Goddess; The Laughing Jesus. 

Simon Small offers in a very accessible form a way into the spiritual quest that takes seriously the Christian contemplative tradition, as well as the explosion of interest in spiritualities of so many kinds in our time. His own experience is at the heart of the book, yet never imposed on the reader. It is a book by which, as you read it, you feel yourself nourished at the same time as you find yourself and your questions appearing on its pages. Peter Selby, former Bishop of Worcester and Bishop to HM Prisons. 

There is an important distinction between the outer, institutional, side of religion and its inner spiritual-experiential side. The latter is the living heart of religion. This book is a very helpful account of this in its Christian form, with practical advice about the art of immediate awareness of the divine presence, and of the effects of this in life as a whole. I commend it both to church people and to the large number of non-church people who are concerned about their own contact with the Ultimate. John Hick, Emeritus Professor of the Philosophy of Religion, Claremont Graduate University, California; philosopher, theologian and author. 

I love this book because it is twenty sticks of spiritual dynamite in a little package. I thoroughly enjoyed the gentle and subtle way the author helps us to remember the important spiritual tools that matter most in these troubled times. This simple how-to is honest, direct and I feel can help many find their way back to the path of light. I was especially impressed with how he could take a subject that under many circumstances would be open to rigidity and explain it in such a non-threatening way that even the most fearful of us can see God in everything. I would recommend this fabulous messenger to anyone who has been looking for a wide and comfy bridge between religion and spirituality. Thanks Simon, this little read has it all. <Riki Frahmann>, “Mystic Living Today” (planetstarz.com)

The manager of a well-known spiritual bookshop calls this book “ a little gem”, and so it is. Slim, spare and focussed, it deals with what it calls “the forgotten art” of experiencing God in the depths of the present moment. Quakers might not feel it is a forgotten art – it is, after all, what we try to do at every Meeting for Worship – but we all know how hard it is, how elusive. Simon Small, a priest, writes from the Christian tradition but he wears the specificity of his faith lightly. He manages to combine a poetic sense of the grandeur of the experience with an analysis of its particularities, and what gets in the way. In a chapter on contemplation and time, he writes of the ever-present “tug to the next moment”. How familiar that tug is, how hard it is to resist, how hard not to continue being the author of our own continuing fantasies which pull us away from the present – a present that is the only reality. Like the experience itself, the book slows us down to look at the details of how we live; of how we might free ourselves to experience God in this way. This way of life might, as he says, not be for everyone, but he has made reading about it very generally accessible. From the Bottom of the Pond reminds me of the famous little book by the seventeenth-century French lay brother. Brother Lawrence, The Practice of the Presence of God. Both are slight, and for the same reason: they are dealing with a simple truth about a simple way of life. Simple, and one of the hardest things in the world. Jennifer Kavanagh "The Friend" (UK Quaker Journal)

"From the Bottom of the Pond" is a beautifully written spiritual jewel. It will make accessible to the Christian Church the profoundest and deepest insights from the exciting new world of modern day enlightenment teachers. With echoes of Thich Nhat Hanh and Eckhart Tolle, this life-changing book will breathe wisdom into the hearts and minds of readers from all faiths or none, helping them to experience the true peace and powerful magic of the present moment. MarkTownsend, Anglican Priest and spiritual magician. Author of "The Gospel of falling Down" and "The Wizard's Gift"

This is an important book. And it is coming out at the moment when it is needed. It is written in a language that we can all understand, mainly in short sentences, each of which adds something to build up a whole as we explore a mystery that is beyond words. Some good stories help us on the way. This short and profound book is a joy to read. Stephen Verney, former Bishop of Repton

Extracts serialised in the Church Times Jan-Feb 2008