Book News: HAPPY author Derren Brown aims to make us a little happier
A LITTLE HAPPIER
notes for reassurance
DERREN BROWN
29th October 2020 | Bantam Press | £8.99 | Hardback
A Little Happier is the perfect handbook for us to live our lives more contentedly, condensing the lessons of Derren Brown’s Sunday Times bestseller Happy into a series of thoughtful and inspiring mini-chapters that readers can dip into for Stoic fortification when faced with life’s stressors.
In A Little Happier Derren Brown delivers 17 beautifully-wrought, wise and profoundly reassuring mini-chapters, each one challenging us to think differently so as to overcome anxiety in a difficult world.
None of this is real when each of us tells stories about our lives in too tidy narratives that are seldom true and rarely helpful.
We should be wary of goal setting: long-term goals fixate us on a future that may not happen and we may not wish for when we get there.
Our partner isn’t right for us because no-one is. None of us is born for someone else. But perhaps those areas of frequent conflict are useful indicators of where we might ourselves be insufferable.
As Derren observes: “Life is hard, messy and complex; our friends will probably let us down; most of what has got us here is blind luck and a series of false starts. But if we can learn to separate what we can control – our thoughts and actions – from all else beyond our control, we can find a surer footing with which to greet the world”.
To pre-order: www.penguin.co.uk/books
Derren Brown began his UK television career in December 2000 with a series of specials called Mind Control. Since redefining the genre of magic for intelligent, modern audiences, he has become synonymous with the art of psychological manipulation. His TV shows have become must-see events.
Amongst a varied and notorious career, Derren has played Russian Roulette on live television, convinced middle-managers to commit an armed robbery in the street, led the nation in a séance, stuck viewers to their sofas, successfully predicted the National Lottery, motivated a shy man to land a packed passenger plane at 30,000 feet, exposed psychic and faith-healing charlatans, and hypnotised a man to assassinate Stephen Fry.
On top of this he tours the UK every year with every year with a sell-out stage show and has recently finished a run on Broadway, NYC.
He has published four books: Tricks of the Mind, Confessions of a Conjuror, Happy and a book of his caricatures, Portraits
For further information, please contact Alison Barrow
[email protected] | 020 8231-6654 | 07970 450184