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.

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.

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.