Looking Back in Wonder : Autobiography of Philip Hainsworth from 1919 to 1967 With a Postscript by Lois Hainsworth, MBE, covering the years 1967-2001

A nineteen-year-old mill worker in northern England discovers a little known Eastern religion, and his life is forever changed. Flung by war across the world, he encounters adherents of this Faith living in different cultures and from a multitude of religious backgrounds. Yet this is a real life: reality can be stranger than fiction. Philip Hainsworth came across the the Baha'i Faith by accident, thinking only that he was attending a talk by a presenter involved in television - a technology so new that only a tiny number of rich families possessed receivers. He joined a community of fervent believers, scattered and few. When he died, memorial meetings were held around the world, His life saw the transformation of a religious community as it expanded around the globe, and it was the constant drive of his life to take part in that transformation. Only rarely in the history of mankind do religious movements arise, so this autobiography of one of its harder working members is that much more interesting. Outstanding achievement - so often arising from birth, accident or towering ability - seem somehow beyond the reach of the ordinary mortal. Yet Philips extraordinary life was lived by an otherwise quite ordinary person. It could have been that of anyone, had they believed and acted as Philip did.