Happy

Why More or Less Everything Is Absolutely Fine

By: Derren Brown

Narrated by: Derren Brown

Brought to you by Penguin.

The audiobook edition of Happy, read by Derren Brown.

Everyone says they want to be happy. But that's much more easily said than done. What does being happy actually mean? And how do you even know when you feel it?

In Happy Derren Brown explores changing concepts of happiness - from the surprisingly modern wisdom of the Stoics and Epicureans in classical times right up until today, when the self-help industry has attempted to claim happiness as its own. He shows how many of self-help's suggested routes to happiness and success - such as positive thinking, self-belief and setting goals - can be disastrous to follow and, indeed, actually cause anxiety.

Happy aims to reclaim happiness and to enable us to appreciate the good things in life, in all their transient glory. By taking control of the stories we tell ourselves, by remembering that 'everything's fine' even when it might not feel that way, we can allow ourselves to flourish and to live more happily.

"Crammed with wisdom and insight . . . I'm going to recommend it to everyone I know" Stephen Fry

"Witty, useful and beautifully written" The Sunday Times

© Derren Brown 2016 (P) Penguin Audio 2018

Critic reviews

Witty, useful and beautifully written... this book grapples expansively with the most profound questions any of us face

Brilliant. Really brilliant and just crammed with wisdom and insight. It will genuinely make a difference to me and the way I think about myself. I'm going to recommend it to everyone I know. (Stephen Fry)

Brown tries to resurrect the original Stoic ambitions here: not just to live well but to die well, too. His book is thoughtful, insightful and ultimately, well, helpful.

Til now, we've known Derren Brown as a supreme illusionist and magician. Now he surprises us with a new and brilliant identity: as a philosopher. Not just any philosopher. Brown takes philosophy back to its truest task: that of helping us to live and die well. His book is deeply informative, moving, wise and full of love. It sets out to change lives - and it will. Derren has pulled off a properly implausible trick: that of making the deepest ideas relevant, humane and urgent. (Alain de Botton)

In this wise and perceptive book Derren Brown has conjoined personal experience, profoundly sensible psychology and the magic of philosophy to produce a really excellent account of how to be happy - really, maturely, properly happy. This is a wonderfully educative - and enjoyable! - book, and should be on everyone's reading list, always. (A.C. Grayling)

Such an amazing author…

This book,like Mr. Brown’s other work with mentalism and magic, creates an experiences that took me to inner reflection and awareness. He threads in a valuable history lesson of relevant philosophy and literature amidst his stories. Thank you, Darren Brown. I hope to share this book with those I care about.

Enjoyable and honest.

A frank and honest walk through Derrins past and learned ideas of stoicism, a real pleasure to listen to his musings of life, death and learning to just let things go.

Funny, valuable, and genuine.

Derren Brown carefully explores what it means to be happy -- and whether or not that's enough. His philosophy may not be his own, but it strikes a resonant & necessary chord in a world obsessed with bleakness and catastrophe. A phenomenal book about one of the most fundamental human emotions.

A masterwork excellently read by its author

Life will end. You, me, my children, everyone we love and care about as well as all Homo sapiens will die. Brown successfully explains that it's through the stories we tell ourselves that we can happily live. Calling heavily upon the lessons of the Stoics, Brown narrates the tale that is our existence.

Excellent primer on living a considered life.

The book isn't a stoic book exactly. It's philosophical, and the philosophy that he leans on most is certainly Stoicism.

The book is partly a much needed corrective the mawkish and naive pablum that fills the self help bookshelves and, unfortunately, people's desperate minds.

This book is a serious, realistic look at what can really be done to live a better, more fulfilled and happy life. This is a book about what matters, really, and how to focus on that.

If you're new to Stoicism this is an excellent place to start. It's modern, engaging and relavant. If you are long down the road of Stoicism much of this book will be retread, and that's okay.

But, there is a lot of this book that isn't Stoicism. He draws from many sources, referencing all sorts of sciences, philosophy and schools of thought. It's worth a read for that alone.

And, Darren reads it. He's an excellent narrator and you get the benefit of the passion and inflection that only the author could convey, with no downsides. He could no doubt be a narrator if he cared to. He's fully professional.

This book is underrepresented by the quantity of reviews and accurately represented by the quality of them. It's excellent. I'll be recommending it to many people for the foreseeable future.