The Optimist: One Man's Search for the Brighter Side of Life

Description

Collapsing stock markets, melting ice caps, floods, tornadoes, terrorism.When it comes to bad news, we've never had it so good. Perhaps it is time to be a little more optimistic? That's what Laurence Shorter decided. And that's why he set himself the challenge of meeting the world's most cheerful people. Surely with the help of Desmond Tutu, Richard Branson and Bill Clinton, Laurence can find the secret to inner happiness. But first things first - how on Earth is he going to get to meet them?

Laurence Shorter worked in the business world for a decade before making the move into writing and comedy in 2001. Since then he has done a one-man show at the Edinburgh Festival, written for the BBC, Channel 4, the Independent, Observer and opendemocracy.net, and toured some of the capital's finest pubs as a comedy dancer. With his focus on the world of therapy and spiritual development he is taken seriously by a growing number of cultural commentators, including his father, his father's girlfriend and their brain-damaged cat. Laurence was born in New York and raised in Edinburgh. Today he lives in South London, though he was recently seen trying to escape on a small bicycle.

* If you're feeling pessimistic about the year ahead, this book does cheer you up. Sunday Times * Witty writer ... restore[s] a little faith in humanity's future. Financial Times 20090110 * Shorter is a snappy writer - fast, compelling, sympathetic and seemingly honest. Observer 20090125 * Deliciously quirky and enormously funny, it brims over with the sort of joie de vivre that would brighten the darkest day. Good Book Guide * Amusing and intriguing. Mail On Sunday * Learning how Richard Branson remains eternally cheerful or how a Buddhist monk became known as 'the happiest man in the world' is pretty inspiring. Metro * [An] anti-misery memoir. Evening Standard * Funny and inspiring ... a book that's a reason to be cheerful in itself. Waterstone's Books Quarterly 20090101 * Shorter is a snappy writer - fast, compelling, sympathetic and ... honest. Observer * After depressing himself listening to the news, Laurence Shorter resolves to save the world and his sanity by reinventing optimism. Sunday Herald 20100110