This work has been built on more than 20 years of research and practice and has proven an easy and flexible tool when utilised to assist men facing challenges. The value of this work is that it is simple to comprehend and easy to then apply.The Grail Quest is the second volume in The MANual series by Jack Adams. In this volume the subject is an interpretation of the Arthurian Grail Quest as a metaphorical map for life. The work takes the six stages of The Grail Quest, as proposed by Joseph Campbell, and develops each into understandings of the different life challenges we all meet. In this way it is possible to comprehend any situation a man finds himself in using one of these six stages. This provides a solid viewpoint of current challenges but also the knowledge of what is needed to be done to move forward.The Grail Quest first sets out to provide a brief and easily read history of The Grail Quest together with an description of how this legend can be seen as a 'map'. From this starting point each of the six stages are described and analysed. Once the history and structure are revealed then Adams goes on to present the 'map' and demonstrate how it can be used today.Each stage of The Grail Quest defines the key issues in the challenge being faced. The stage also identifies the nature of those challenges, the reason why they exist and thereby defining the actions required to move on in life. As in the original story, the goal for the hero knight is to bring harmony to his life and his world.Our societies and cultures are all changing with a speed never before known. The MANual series is specifically written for men to help them navigate what is sometimes a confusing and challenging world. Being a 'male' in our current times is to possess a gender identity some are now describing as 'toxic'. Such discourses do nothing to help men or society. Whilst it is true that the history of male patriarchy carries some heavy burdens of responsibility, most men just want to live decent lives, raise families and live in a partnership of happiness with their woman. However, many men lose their way, some fail to understand their life in terms of their responsibilities and for a great deal depression and unhappiness results.The message of The MANual series is that we men have to take responsibility for our own actions. We have to be both brave and honest and be adult males. In order to be that we need to understand some of the fundamentals of our own lives.The Grail Quest provides a man with a legend he can relate to; the hero knight. The six stages provide a simple structure for navigating the challenges of life. Things that can be confusing suddenly become a lot clearer when you have the map!
About the Author: As a writer, Jack has been producing material for 21 years now. Most of his output has been web-based, academic, reference or project-based deliveries. As of 2018, Jack is developing his own voice as an author. That voice is based on a range of experiences in life which do not speak of the ordinary. Jack has been involved with indigenous communities, been homeless, been walking long distances and travelled through many different landscapes and cultures. In this journey, he has used the ideas of Comparative Mythology as his compass and has navigated a way through a life of strange contradictions. In his career he has been a barman, a washing up person in a commercial kitchen, an insurance broker, a travel agent, a salesman, a small holding farmer, a caretaker in an east London tower block, a theatre porter in an abortion clinic, a support worked with profoundly disabled young adults, a personal carer for a tetraplegic man and a jobbing gardener. He studied at Ruskin College, Oxford and Girton College, Cambridge, he is a Churchill Fellow and he has worked with academics in Universities in the UK and beyond. Jack founded and ran the original HumanRightsTV, a project much copied by others, and in that work addressed a range of subjects in which he had the fortune to be mentored by leading experts in their fields. He has been an invited guest speaker at a conference sponsored by the United Nations in Mexico, the opening speaker at a conference in Tunisia and after speaking at the Queensland University of Technology was placed on the preferred speaker list. He is also a popular after dinner speaker. However, for Jack, such things are of much smaller importance than the well-being of the people around him. Jack's own personal happiness is to be found in his gardens, his library and in the kitchen where he cooks for his wife and his friends. In his world, life is about eating good food, being with friends and family and working at tasks you love. Jack does not own a smartphone or a television.