The diary I kept when I was recovering from CFS - serialised in iBelieve magazine

Kim Alexis is on the front cover of this month's issue of iBelieve. 

My story continues inside.

Please click here for subscription details.

iBelieve, the Christian lifestyle magazine full of interesting testimonies

I was dazzelled to find that this month 'Funnily Enough' is being included alongside feature articles on such great Christian authors as Joyce Meyer, Nicky Gumbel and Sarah de Carvahlo

And there is an hilarious cartoon of me, looking GLAMOROUS and organised.

I'm always packing things up for the post but never this neatly.

For two issues of iBelieve please click here

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Gloria Gaynor and me - in iBelieve Magazine

The third installment of excerpts of Funnily Enough in iBelieve ~ the Christian Lifestyle magazine

~ Please click on image to enlarge ~
illustration provided by the publisher

To keep reading, Funnily Enough is available on Kindle and in print.

To subscribe to iBelieve magazine please click here

A Radio Broadcast in the USA ~

On Saturday 23rd March 

at 10.00am

Sophie Neville was interviewed by Dr Diane Dike

on 

Second Chance Radio Show in the USA.

Diane, who also loves dogs, is interested in raising awareness about invisible diseases.

As well as talking about Funnily Enough she told listeners about the sequel Ride the Wings of Morning. Free Kindle copies of the E-book were offered on the show.

~ Click here for the link ~

To get a free Kindle app for your I-phone, Lap-top or other device 

please click here for details

Funnily Enough excerpts in iBelieve ~ the Christian lifestyle magazine

~ More extracts from 'Funnily Enough' in this month's iBelieve magazine ~

For two issues at £5, or to subscribe to the print edition, click here and scroll down to see prices on the left. For other subscription options and a preview of an earlier issue click here.

~ Click on the images for Amazon links ~

Funnily Enough on Premier Christian Radio ~

I really enjoyed being at Premier Christian Radio in London 

where Maria Toth invited me on her morning show 'Woman to Woman'.

You can listen to the programme on this link
only certain browsers will get you there,
You will need to use Internet Explorer or the latest versions of Chrome of Firefox 

A message of hope for 2013 ~

This is a page from my diary of February 1992 ~ nearly twenty-one years ago. It was the day I can truly say that I started to recover from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. I was camping in the mountains of South Africa with my friend, Rebecca Hunter, who was recovering from injuries caused by a terrible road accident.

I hope you can read the original ~

Having been a teacher, Rebecca went on to write numerous wonderful books for children ~
click on: Books by Rebecca Hunter

Latest Amazon reviews ~ November 2012

Amazon reviews for 'Funnily Enough'

"An uplifting story of the writer's battle with illness.

Her optimism, faith in God and support of family and friends get her through.
A very positive read!" Mrs JPG Rice

"This is a very funny and entertaining book..." JSF Hopkinson

To write your own review - however brief - please click on the greenish sausage beside the chart on your Amazon product review page.

For those in the UK, please click here 

For readers in the US, Africa or India, please click here

Many thanks!

All sketches on the blog are featured in 'Funnily Enough' and are (c) Sophie Neville. Please contact me if you need to use them on sophie@sophieneville.co.uk

A book review from South Africa

Funnily Enough: funny, real and inspiring

I laughed the first time I read "Funnily Enough" and as I re-read it now, I am laughing at exactly the same places.

As much as the book is humorous, it also brings home the reality of how we push ourselves for fear of falling behind or losing what we have built up. We forget that all this can change in the twinkling of an eye and ultimately is not important.

The book helps to put life back into perspective and to remind us of where our hope, trust and faith should lie. Sophie's diary entries of the goings on within herself, the family and pets and with her friends over a period of a year while she is coming to terms with her illness and working towards recovery are thoroughly entertaining and illuminating. Her sketches add to the already vivid pictures that Sophie conjures up through her writing. Some of the incidents are absolutely bizarre but yet so typical of our journey in life. It was a completely enjoyable read the first time and even more inspiring the second time around. Superb. 

by Jennifer Hutcheon, Gauteng, South Africa
~ 3rd July 2012

Chronicle of a year in the ME zone ~

A review in The Church Times ~ June edition ~ Book's page

Click image to expand:

How I came to write 'Funnily Enough'

I was directing a drama serial for the BBC when I fell ill with ME or Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. The doctor at work sent me home to my parents’ farm, telling me to keep a diary whilst I recovered. I not only recorded the funny things that happened to me over the course of a year but made sketches, drawing the people and animals around me.

Years later, when I was really much better, I felt urged to type this diary up. Having done so I flew to Kenya with the work on a disc, only to have my bag stolen in the Masai Mara. Our tents had been slashed open while we slept. I decided to search the bush around the camp and by some miracle found my discarded bag with the disc still inside.

My palm top had vanished. I couldn’t afford to buy a lap top, but I finished adapting the diary, into what I hope is a readable, humorous book, on a school computer in South Africa. I sat on one of those tiny plastic chairs made for infants, typing away for all I was worth. Whenever the teachers had a break I gave them tuition on how to use Microsoft Word in exchange for the use of their PC.

I had a watercolour, I'd once painted at my parents' house, that I thought I could use for the cover but Funnily Enough took me much longer to make into a book than I ever imagined. The original diary had great gaps when I had been too ill to write anything. It wasn't very funny.

Just as I was getting rather stiff on a tiny plastic chair, Johanna Mutshudi, the headmistress of the primary school, asked me if I could keep the computer safely in my room over the two month summer holiday, which falls over Christmas in South Africa. I turned down party invitation to keep typing, sending out drafts to be checked by the real characters who appear in the pages.

At one stage I stopped writing and said, 'Lord, this is taking ages. Do you really want me to spend so much time on this?' Immediately a verse from the Old Testament came into my head. I looked it up:   

"Write the vision

And make it plain on tablets,

That he may run who reads it'"

Habakkuk 2:2



This was in 2001. I thought the word tablet rather old fashioned but kept writing. When I finished, I immediately started work on the sequel, Ride the Wings of Morning followed by Makorongo's War.

In 2011 I went to China on a delegation with the Bible Society. We were taken around the vast factory where China's bestseller is printed. There, on the first press, was my verse: Habakkuk 2:2.

I returned to England and started to format Funnily Enough for publication. I now have it on an electronic devise called a tablet. And I run around with this in my back pocket.

I hope that what I've written will bring light, encouragement and laughter to many. It was originally designed as an undemanding holiday read or an illustrated book you can give to anyone stuck in bed with 'flu. I have it on my I-phone now, accessed via a Kindle app. It is great to have book on your phone. It gives you something to dip into on the train or if you get stuck for hours on the motorway.

My palm top computer was eventually returned to me by the son of the Masai who must have stolen it. He had been convicted my writing and sent it back from Alaska where he was at university. Funnily enough someone living in Alaska is currently reading my Blog ~ http://sophieneville.net/

Illustrated with 64 sketches from the original diary Funnily Enough is available from Amazon books, on Kindle, (£1.92) and direct from Lulu.com in hardcover (£12.60) in paperback (£7.99) and  to order from your library or bookshop – ISBN:9781466213487.

Reviews ~

Funnily Enough - it really is!

Sophie Neville's book 'Funnily Enough' is quite the most delightful new book I have read for many a long year.

From her diary she writes of a time when her relentless life in front-line television production was 'crashed into the buffers' by a then desperately little understood affliction. She charmingly engages the reader about her struggles with the medical condition and as a result, herself, her beliefs, her whole world, and writes as to you, personally, like an old and valued friend. It is beautifully written and every page left me smiling contentedly for hours: refreshingly different and a real tonic in itself.

Sophie draws the reader into her real life where, with the support of her wonderful if slightly unconventional family and friends far and wide, despite the setbacks, she triumphs over the adversities to new sunlit uplands in her life. It is surely also a 'must read' for any past or present sufferers of what is now called 'M.E.' for it brings hope and faith, and the charity from which she gives so much of herself - to everyone.
It is a very enjoyable and HAPPY book, nicely illustrated with her quirky sketches from the time. The excellent title is true except that I want more of Sophie's affectionate writing style and her lovely sense of humour. Highly recommended, 'it ticks all my boxes': don't risk being 'sorry for a might-have-been'!
Peter Bell

This is my first review on a book, but I just had to do it.
This book, is a must to read, it is written in diary form, but takes you through Sophie's days, in a day by day format, at a rate of knots, and describes her journey through her illness, the highs and the lows. The book describes her move back home to live with her parents and the many situations that happen. These incidents will have you in stitches, as you imagine what actually might have been, like the time when her father is attacked by one of these motorised garden cultivators, and his manhood is only saved when the machine decided to cut out.......
The characters who pop up in this book are wonderful, from Alastair, to Mrs Hawkins...
I could go on but I think what you should do is get this book, "Funnily Enough" and make sure you have plenty of time, are sitting comfortably, have been to the toilet, got a drink and a snack to hand, as you will not really want to move until you have finished it........
Dave Holbourn

Would you like to write a review of Funnily Enough?
They only have to be 20 words long.

If you have an Amazon account and live in the UK
please click on ~
 http://www.amazon.co.uk/product-reviews/1466213485/ref=dp_top_cm_cr_acr_txt?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1

If you have an Amazon.com account ~ and live in the USA, Canada, South Africa etc
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Many thanks!

‘Funnily Enough’ on Amazon Kindle

The illustrated e-Book of ‘Funnily Enough’ 

£1.92 from Amazon Kindle worldwide

please click here

Recent readers response ~

“I’ve just finished your book. I do congratulate you on a quite splendid achievement. The whole read is such fun, so joyful, so funny and so touching. I found it very lovable… I was quite enraptured by your lovely piece of work. Well done indeed.” Richard Pilbrow, CEO Theatre Projects, Connecticut USA

"I LOVED it... it's beautifully written." Hermione Spencer, Scotland

“Your writing is so delightfully open and funny and full of fun. It’s a breath of fresh air while also giving courage and perspective to others who struggle with long hard trials.”  Wendy Chandler, South Africa

“Hilarious.” Nick Lombard-Scott, London

“I am completely loving ‘Funnily Enough’ in fact I have nearly finished it and cannot wait for the next book. I will take my copy to the Seychelles. I relate so much to everything you are writing about and it really is amazing – such insights into life. Well done. It is just my kind of book.” Sarah Collins, South Africa

"Hilarious." Sarkis Mahseredjian, London

'It looks amazing! I love the way you incorporate your beautiful artwork into your stories, it makes them so rich!' Skye Wieland, Queensland, Australia

Ten years ago I was given this verse:

“ Write the vision 
 And make it plain on tablets, 
 That he may run who reads it.” 

Habakkuk 2:2

                                                                                                  

….I thought the word tablet very old fashioned at the time, never guessing that it would be possible to read it on an electronic gadget. Mine is called ‘a tablet’.