How I Learned To Stop Saluting Magpies: A Lifeline List and Letting Go of Fear

by Lynn Farley-Rose

Lynn grew up believing that saluting magpies could keep bad luck at bay. But after a string of disasters—illness, financial ruin, divorce—she’s forced to the magpie magic isn’t working.

At rock bottom, she turns to a lifeline—a list of treats and adventures she’d always meant to try but never quite got round to. As she slowly ticks them off, what begins as a quest for distraction becomes something deeper.

A train rattles across America. Flamingos flap. Secrets surface. There’s clifftop terror. And step by step, old fears, inherited wounds, and superstitions begin to loosen their grip—creating space for forgiveness, of herself and of others.

How I Learned to Stop Saluting Magpies is a funny, thoughtful memoir about letting go, moving on, and inching—slightly suspiciously—toward joy.

307 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 16, 2025

About the author

Lynn Farley-Rose spent her childhood in Devon and then went to university in London. She spent some years working as a research psychologist before a move to Sussex resulted in a complete change of lifestyle. At one point she was responsible for the welfare of thirty-two animals and eight species including her four children. 31 Treats And A Marriage is her first book and arose out of an interest in ways to cope when life throws up challenges. She's working on her second book and writes a regular blog, treatsandmore.com which includes interviews, treats, travel and trivia.