The Wire

Happiness is the Holy Grail of our times – the Western world is materially better off than at any other period in history but depression and suicide rates continue to soar … and more than ever before we are obsessed by the need to be happy. So if you write a book on how to be happy you almost certainly have a best seller on your hands. Clinical psychologist, Dr Timothy Sharp, has done that. His book is called ‘The Happiness Handbook’ and Dr Sharp heads up the quaintly named Happiness Institute. Dr Sharp spoke with Annie Hastwell about why our society is so desperately seeking the ‘H’ word.