Happy Ever After: Escaping The Myth of The Perfect Life - Hardcover

Dolan, Paul

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0241284449 ISBN 13: 9780241284445

Publisher: Allen Lane, 2019

Synopsis

'A passionate, provocative book. It isn't just a self-help book. It is a manifesto for a better society' Sunday Times

'One of the most rigorous articulations of the new mood of acceptance...a persuasive demolition of many of our cultural stories about how we ought to live' Oliver Burkeman, Guardian

Paul Dolan, the bestselling author of Happiness by Design, shows us how to escape the myth of perfection and find our own route to happiness.

Be ambitious; find everlasting love; look after your health ... There are countless stories about how we ought to live our lives. These narratives can make our lives easier, and they might sometimes make us happier too. But they can also trap us and those around us.

In Happy Ever After, bestselling happiness expert Professor Paul Dolan draws on a variety of studies ranging over wellbeing, inequality and discrimination to bust the common myths about our sources of happiness. He shows that there can be many unexpected paths to lasting fulfilment. Some of these might involve not going into higher education, choosing not to marry, rewarding acts rooted in self-interest and caring a little less about living forever.

By freeing ourselves from the myth of the perfect life, we might each find a life worth living.

About this title

Review

Smart, engaging and funny. A book that will make you question everything you think you know about what you want (Caroline Criado Perez, author of Invisible Women)

A passionate, provocative book. It isn't just a self-help book. It is a manifesto for a better society (The Times)

One of the most rigorous articulations of the new mood of acceptance...a persuasive demolition of many of our cultural stories about how we ought to live (Oliver Burkeman Guardian)

A very useful antidote to the pressures of modern living. Very few books change the way you think about yourself, but this is one of them. I would particularly recommend it to young adults with all these life choices ahead of them. (Tablet)

A timely warning that we need to question standard assumptions about what is good for individuals and society. Dolan makes a compelling case for putting people's own perceptions of their wellbeing at the heart of policy making (Lord Gus O’Donnell, former Cabinet Secretary)

[Praise for Happiness By Design] Few books change one's life; in 48 hours this has improved mine (Jenni Russell Sunday Times)

[Praise for Happiness by Design] Dolan is especially illuminating when it comes to bigger life-choices . . . His book is a powerful reminder not to get caught up in overthinking things, but to focus instead on maximising what actually delivers joy . . . and most of us would benefit from listening to him (Oliver Burkeman Guardian)

[Praise for Happiness By Design] Outstanding, cutting-edge, and profound (Nassim Nicholas Taleb, bestselling author of The Black Swan and Skin in the Game)

The book that will make you quit your job (New Statesman)

Paul Dolan know what makes people happy - and what doesn't. Happy Ever After is illuminating, wise, even profound. A magnificent achievement (Cass Sunstein, co-author of Nudge)

About the Author

Paul Dolan is Professor of Behavioural Science at the LSE. He is an internationally renowned expert in human behaviour and happiness. Amongst various other roles, he wrote the questions that are being used to monitor national happiness in the UK and has advised many governments, charities and corporations on how to influence behaviour to improve wellbeing. His debut book, Happiness by Design, was a Sunday Times bestseller and dubbed 'the book that will make you quit your job'.

Edition details

• Publisher: Allen Lane
• Publication date: 2019
• ISBN 10: 0241284449
• ISBN 13: 9780241284445
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 256