An east Suffolk author who grew up in Africa is hoping his latest self-help book will inspire Zimbabwean youngsters to find greater purpose in their lives.

James Maberly, chairman of the Zimbabwe Agricultural Welfare Trust, will be donating 10% of the profits from Why Follow Rules? to the charity so that it can distribute free copies of the book to children living in the struggling nation.

Having grown up in Zimbabwe, and seen its youth suffer years of Robert Mugabe’s despotic rule, Mr Maberly felt the positive message of his book could have a positive effect.

“There’s a real sense of powerlessness among the young people in Zimbabwe,” he said. “They have known nothing of their country other than its constant deterioration under Mugabe.

“Their vision of the future must be pretty bleak, and so I thought they could really benefit from something that would inspire them so they can recognise they can get up and do something different with their lives.”

The book invites readers to challenge the rules they follow by raising a series of questions. It then goes on to suggest they “embrace the wisdom of their intuition” as a better form of guidance.

Mr Maberly, 58,who now lives in Dennington near Framlingham, said the inspiration for the book came to him early one morning.

“I woke up at 5am and I thought, I’ve got to get this down – there was a sudden need to write and then in the process of writing I began to see how it could really benefit the children in Zimbabwe,” he said.

“It’s about challenging yourself to look at things in a slightly different way and ultimately what comes out of this is that rules are important for all of us, but they should be rules that we choose to follow, rather than just follow blindly.”

The book also features interviews with a number of successful individuals, such as the Business Person of the Year 2011 Scott Russell, who have been selected as advocates of making intuitive decisions.

Mr Mabley has also created a website which offers people who have read the book a chance to develop its message further with videos and interactive course material.

Visit www.cultivating-intuition.com for more information on the book and details of how it can be bought.