# Turning Points: Stories to Change Your Life

> This is a collection of interview-based stories about turning points for ten people. The author’s own turning point came with the death of a child from Tay-Sachs disease. This led her to leave a successful but demanding career to set up a charity, ProjectScotland.

By Katy Gerner · 19 April 2010 · Reviews / Books

Canonical: https://insights1.uca.org.au/articles/turning-points-stories-to-change-your-life/

## Julia Ogilvy, Lion

This is a collection of interview-based stories about turning points for ten people.

The author’s own turning point came with the death of a child from Tay-Sachs disease. This led her to leave a successful but demanding career to set up a charity, ProjectScotland.

The story I found the most interesting (and horrifying) was Clive Stafford Smith’s experiences as a death row lawyer. He said that he didn’t have one single turning point that led him to this career but a series of incidents. One in particular when he looked at a picture of Joan of Arc being burnt at the stake and thought she looked like his sister.

Part of his story included: “They’re sitting underneath the electric chair that will take their lives. Once a week they would test the electricity and all the lights would dim.”

Ogilvy interviews a wide range of people, including people who have come from dysfunctional or tragic backgrounds and made a second chance for themselves and then others.

Other people faced tragedy within a privileged environment and later felt they should be doing something for society. Issues covered in the interviews include addiction, justice (mostly a lack of it), illness, disability, illiteracy, religious belief, kidnapping, betrayal by the church and death.

*Turning Points Stories to Change Your Life* is not an easy read. It’s challenging and very vivid. And it could lead to new turning points for its readers.

**Katy Gerner**