Blogpost: Bill Bailey's Remarkable Guide To Happiness

Posted by T • October 24, 2020

Posted by T • October 24, 2020

Bill Bailey's Remarkable Guide To Happiness

Hachette Publishing

 

Bill Bailey is an interesting one. I remember watching him incarnate in the third dimension and after the first fifteen minutes, I was going to give ten more to see where his performance was going to go and I ended up having one of the best evenings with a comedian that I have ever had. This means to say that Bill is not your run-off-the-mill comic, but an artist that has accomplished everything from music to acting and one that has a refined and well-calibrated approach to comedy that slowly unfolds its hilarious potential.

Following his, Remarkable Guide To British Birds, Bill Bailey's Remarkable Guide To Happiness is not a comedian’s piss take on a collective effort towards self-optimisation and happiness – au contraire – the book is thoughtfully comprised of essays aimed at cutting through the noise of our modern age.

Reminded of mortality by entering the fifth decade of his earthly existence, Baily was inspired to explore the chasm between what our life has transpired to be and our expectations of it, i.e. the pressures and competition of the quantifiable and more and more confusing realities of modern life.

Not being averse to change and innovation, Bailey explore the state of mind that constitutes happiness, which in his mind seems to occur when you least expect it.

Bill Bailey's Remarkable Guide To Happiness is both a whimsical, warm and thoughtful compilation of exposes that contain a lot of personal facets to convey the pleasure simple things like e.g. being in the outdoors can bring.

Accompanied by Bailey’s illustrations, the book is a pick-me-up in times when contentment seems hard to come by.

T • October 24, 2020

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