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Daily journal for children aged 9-12 to promote self-knowledge, confidence, happiness and emotional well-being.

Children love to explore, born with a boundless desire to understand the world around them. While most of the outside world has already been mapped, there's a whole other world that has yet to be discovered, one that's accessible only to them: their own minds.

The Book of Me is a guided journal promoting self-discovery in children ages 9 to 14. With beautiful illustrations by Ben Jarvis throughout, the book takes readers on a journey inside themselves, helping them explore their mind, moods, imagination, bodies, and relationships.

Written in a warm and engaging tone, The Book of Me helps kids create a rich and unique self-portrait through fun exercises, including:

• Keeping a mood diary
• Writing down what emotion a song makes us feel
• Making up new words and their definitions
• Channeling Picasso by drawing an object or person in a new way
• Using shared knowledge to make friends

By writing, drawing, cutting out, and coloring in, children can begin to untangle the mysteries of existence and work out who they really are-and who they might become.

Combining psychology, philosophy, and sheer fun, The Book of Me introduces children to the vital art of self-knowledge, showing how it can help us grow into calmer, wiser, and more rounded human beings.

• OVER 50 FUN ACTIVITIES AND EXERCISES for children to help them develop their self-awareness.
• EMOTIONAL LITERACY encourages children to explore how they think, feel and experience the world around them.
• ENGAGING ILLUSTRATIONS BY BEN JAVENS encourage kids to creatively explore mind, body, imagination, moods, relationships, and future.
• PAPERBACK WITH FLAPS for kids on the go.

A therapeutic and consoling workbook with exercises to soothe anxiety and create a state of calm.

Most of us long to be a little calmer: too many of our days are lost to agitation and worry, stress and discord. Yet we know that we are at our best when we can manage not to panic and take challenges in our stride.

Fortunately, a calm state of mind is not a divine gift. Even those of us starting from a more agitated position can systematically understand and lay claim to it. Too many books on this subject simply explain what it would be like to be calm. This is a workbook that takes us through the practical steps required to actually become calm. It is filled with exercises and prompts that deliver the self-understanding and self-compassion on which true serenity depends. Furthermore, the book invites us to build calming routines into our daily lives so that what we learn can stick with us and change us for the long term.

Based on years of The School of Life’s work in the area of anxiety and calm, this is a landmark workbook guaranteed to bring about the calmer state of mind we long for and deserve.

• EASY-TO-FOLLOW JOURNALING PROMPTS to explore our inner landscape and cultivate calm.
• DRAWING EXERCISES for everyone, no artistic ability required.
• A THERAPEUTIC WORKBOOK with plenty of space to track moods, set goals, and reflect.
• SOOTHING packaging and simple layout - a journal to keep close at hand.
• A TIMELY TOOLKIT to achieve calm in a frenzied, chaotic world.

A game for two people to assess their compatibility—with charm and wit

The Compatibility Game is designed to help two people in a relationship (romantic or otherwise) assess their level of compatibility. It helps to identify areas of alignment and divergence in their values, ambitions, goals or beliefs and, at the same time, discuss the significance of all these things. Crucially, the game does not suggest that incompatibilities cannot be overcome: the basis of successful relationships is not compatibility but compromise!

The Confessions Card Game - A simple game of cards and dice opening up daring conversations

From adolescence onwards, one of the great struggles we face is how to reconcile our own desires with those we find socially acceptable. 

The best encounters with friends are those where we can talk honestly about what's going on in our lives, sharing triumphs, joys, fears and longings - without the usual shyness or reserve. This confessions game—meant to be played with friends—guarantees that the warmest, most fascinating conversations won’t have to be left to chance. With the help of a dice and some cards, the game asks participants to answer a series of questions around career, sex, money, relationships, family, gently inviting everyone to share important bits of themselves in an intimate and playful atmosphere. 

By thinking of confessions as a game – as a sociable and exploratory activity, as opposed to a risky affair – the cards prompt us to open ourselves up to interesting and exhilarating conversations, allowing us to be a little more honest around the most intimate aspects of ourselves.

The difference between a successful and a disappointing life often comes down to a critical ingredient that we overlook at our peril: confidence. 

This is a book with a practical purpose: to take us through exercises that help us rediscover the confidence we all already have inside us—the confidence that we have neglected out of habit, fear or meekness. It’s a faculty we are all endowed with and confidence can flourish with the right kind of practice and encouragement. 

This workbook contains over fifty exercises that flex our confident faculties and guide us to greater effectiveness in our relationships, in our working lives and in our approach to ourselves. This includes a Self-Esteem Audit to identify what we might have gone through in our early lives, asking  questions such as: Do you think you are essentially a good person? Were your parents essentially supportive or not? Do you hate or like being you? There are sections focusing on confidence in relationships, friendships, and at work.

This is a tool to unlock our latent powers – and help us become who we long, and deserve, to be. 

Pair with the Confidence Prompt Cards, designed to help you find confidence and battle against timidity.

Therapeutic exercises to help couples nurture patience, forgiveness, and humor. 

Love is not just an emotion - it's a skill. And just like any other skill, we need to practice in order to get good at it. 

We often have fairy tale expectations for our romantic relationships, but realistically, after a heady and passion-fueled start, we end up in partnerships that are a confusing tangle of hope, distance, boredom, loyalty, and betrayal. 

Full of accessible and though-provoking exercises, this workbook fosters understanding, patience, forgiveness, humor, and resilience in the face of the many hurdles that invariably arise in a long term relationship. 

Couples are guided to have particular conversations, analyze their feelings, explain parts of themselves to one another, and undertake rituals that clear the air and help recover hope and passion. The goal is always to unblock channels of feeling and improve communication - and to have fun while doing it.

No one can be intuitively good at relationships. We all need to do some homework to become the best partners and couples we can be.

• A GUIDED JOURNAL WITH OVER 60 EXERCISES to encourage couples to share their feelings with each other and open up about their insecurities.
• A THERAPEUTIC WORKBOOK drawing from research from The School of Life’s therapy department.
• INCLUDES INTERACTIVE SPACES to complete the activities and illustrations throughout.
• BEAUTIFULLY PRODUCED hardcover in high end gift format.

The Dilemmas Game —What would you do if…

In life, we are regularly faced with dilemmas: complex moral problems for which there are no obvious answers. When a friend confesses to having an affair, do we keep their secret? When a stranger is crying on the bus, do we offer comfort or keep our distance? In such moments, we long for some good advice to help us find a way forward. 

The Dilemmas Game invites you to flex your moral muscles and compare your problem-solving skills with those of your friends and family. Players must propose different solutions to 52 common dilemmas, using analogies or drawing on real-life experiences to explain their answers. It’s a fun and enlightening way of practicing for the inevitable quandaries of life. The cards cover five categories: Relationships, Work, Sociability, Family, and Leisure.

• A PRACTICAL GUIDE TO EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE AT WORK
• EXPLORES TWENTY KEY SKILLS: such as giving feedback, responding to criticism, and communicating effectively.
• INFORMATIVE FOR INDIVIDUALS AND BUSINESSES ALIKE
• INFORMED BY RESEARCH FROM THE SCHOOL OF LIFE BUSINESS: who deliver in-house training for clients including: Facebook, The Financial Times, Google, Havas Media, Nike, and Sony Music.

Laugh & Reconnect With Those Who Matter Most

The idea of family lies close to the meaning of life, but in practice, families do not always come together, or chat about what matters, or laugh as much or as often as they should.

The Family Game is the solution; this is a game expressly designed to help family gatherings live up to our highest hopes. It consists of a host of questions (chosen randomly with a dice) that kick-start the best sorts of conversations: ones in which we reconnect, say things we always meant to, laugh warmly together – and remember why family counts. The cards cover five categories: Gentle Teasing, Gratitude, Self, Memories, and Regret.

A compassionate guide to raising resilient, authentic, well-rounded children.

The Good Enough Parent is a compendium of life lessons, including how to say 'No', how to look beneath the surface of "bad" behavior to find the root of what is going on, how to encourage a child to be genuinely kind, and how to handle the moodiness of adolescence. 

Rather than striving for perfection, the book argues, the job of any parent is in fact to guide a child gently into the imperfect nature of everything. 

Encouraging, wry, and steeped in years of experience, The Good Enough Parent is an intelligent guide to raising a child who will one day look back on their childhood with just the right mixture of gratitude, humor, and love.

• COMPASSIONATE ADVICE: for raising content toddlers into resourceful teens.
• FOR BUSY PARENTS: includes digestible, accessible lessons in parenting.
• ACTIONABLE TIPS: for balancing parental instinct with the acquisition of new skills.
• EMOTIONAL CURRICULUM: with lessons in curiosity, listening, manners, and adolescence.

Full of colorful original photographs, The Joys and Sorrows of Parenting promises us a gentle way of staying calm around one of the most arduous yet deeply fulfilling jobs in the world. 

This playful adult board book distills 2,000 years of philosophy into 26 consoling mini essays that shed light on trials and pleasures of parenting. 

• A PLAYFUL BOARD BOOK FOR ADULTS illustrated with full color, original photographs throughout. 

• 26 DIGESTIBLE MINI ESSAYS to reassure and entertain the modern parent. 

• PRACTICAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL parenting advice that doesn't shy away from the imperfections of family life. 

• THE IDEAL GIFT for parents at all stages of their family journey.

The School of Life’s guide to the rest of a life together

Our society devotes huge attention to the start of a marriage – and the wedding ceremony —but the real challenge lies beyond the wedding, with the long years ahead, and here we are often left alone.

This box is The School of Life’s guide to the rest of a life together, containing twenty beautiful cards which lay out the central ideas on how to make a relationship work over the decades beyond the wedding day. It is filled with artful suggestions on coping with what even the most loving couple will face as they build a life together. This set of cards is both a celebration of marriage and a rich source of insights into the skills it demands.

The School of Life’s thought-provoking and practical guide to one of the greatest questions we will ever face – now in paperback

To wonder too openly or intensely about the meaning of life can seem a peculiar, ill-fated and faintly ridiculous pastime. It can seem like a topic on which ordinary mortals cannot make much progress. In truth, it is for all of us to wonder about, define and work towards a more meaningful existence.

This book considers a range of options for where the meaning of life is to be found, including love, family, friendship, work, self-knowledge and nature. We learn why certain things feel meaningful while others don’t, and consider how we might introduce more meaning into our activities.

What follows is a hugely thought-provoking as well as practical guide to one of the greatest questions we will ever face.

A pack of 52 cards to help us understand what truly matters through deep and entertaining conversation

What do you wish you had realized earlier?
What do you secretly enjoy?
What would the child you think about the adult you?

We sometimes playfully wonder what the meaning of life might be - but it can be hard to kick start a conversation with ourselves (let alone with anyone else) around such a daunting subject. 

Here are 52 cards that directly and elegantly lead us to some of the largest questions about life and its meaning – cards that help us and our companions to think with exceptional depth about what truly matters, where we see ourselves heading and what gives life its purpose. This is a tool for direction, clarity – and some of the deepest yet most fun and entertaining conversations we’ll ever have.

A 15th anniversary collection of The School of Life’s most popular and essential essays on self-knowledge, relationships, work and culture.

The School of Life is an organization with a mission at its heart: to help foster calm, self-understanding and greater emotional maturity. 

For the last 15 years, we have produced landmark essays on important life topics, now gathered together for the first time.

Among the essays collected here, conveniently, in one volume:

• On Confidence: a guide to throwing off inhibition in the name of a more free and creative life
• Self-Knowledge: a method for knowing ourselves better in order to make optimal choices in love and work
• Why You Will Marry the Wrong Person: a hopeful and wry survey of the trials and joys of marriage

This beautiful edition of The School of Life’s best advice is a perfect companion to carry around or keep on a bedside table— a concise compendium of some of the wisest things we’ll ever need to know.

What our readers have been saying about the individual essays

On Confidence

"Brief but insightful! Will be back for more School of Life reads. Works really well on Audible"

"Brilliant! Thought provoking. Kept concise enough to really focus on the subject and give you time to think about the subject in terms of yourself."

Self-Knowledge

"It's such a simple and small book but with a powerful message! I really needed it and I'm grateful I got to read this book and work on the exercises. The exercises are definitely a plus and they're very well thought-through!"

Just perfect. Must-read for everyone who considers at least dating, not to mention serious commitment. Beautifully exposed all the myths and concepts of love, sex and relationships. While this is very entertaining and funny, the topics are very serious and make me think and change my attitude... a lot."

Why You Will Marry The Wrong Person

"Excellent little book for perspective on a considerably important subject. If you plan on marrying, take a day and read this magnificent little title."

Essays from this series available as audiobooks:

Self-Knowledge

On Confidence

• THE ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO ETIQUETTE IN THE 21ST CENTURY
• NAVIGATING OUR MOST AWKWARD SOCIAL SITUATIONS this practical and relevant guide offers tips and scripts.
• TWENTY CASE STUDIES AND ACTIONABLE ADVICE for dealing with common social dilemmas.
• HOW TO WIN PEOPLE OVER, how to approach strangers at a party, and how to write an effective thank you note-the chapters in this book address common perplexing social situations head on.
• BLACK AND WHITE PHOTOGRAPHY THROUGHOUT

A journal that seeks to honour the act of therapeutic writing containing journalling prompts to find inspiration and encouragement

Writing is a simple and effective way to work through what we really want, what’s at stake– and where we might go next. It’s a great way to garner self-awareness and get creativity flowing.

This is a journal that honors the act of writing as a road to calm, joy and self-knowledge. Use it on its own or alongside our Journal Prompt Cards as a place to explore and capture what might otherwise float aimlessly in the mind; make this a repository of all that you feel, remember, think – and are.

A journal that seeks to honour the act of therapeutic writing containing journalling prompts to find inspiration and encouragement

Writing is a simple and effective way to work through what we really want, what’s at stake– and where we might go next. It’s a great way to garner self-awareness and get creativity flowing.

This is a journal that honors the act of writing as a road to calm, joy and self-knowledge. Use it on its own or alongside our Journal Prompt Cards as a place to explore and capture what might otherwise float aimlessly in the mind; make this a repository of all that you feel, remember, think – and are.

A practical guide to finding fulfilling work - by understanding yourself.

The idea that work might be fulfilling rather than just necessary is a recent invention. These days, in prosperous areas of the world, we don't only expect to get paid, we also expect to find meaning and satisfaction. It's a big ask and explains why so many people have an identity crisis in their work lives.

The School of Life: A Job To Love is designed to help us better understand ourselves in order to find a job that is right for us. It explores the myths, traps and confusions that get in our way, and shows us how to develop new, effective attitudes and habits.

With compassion and practicality, this book guides us to discover our true talents and to make sense of our confusion, desires, and aspirations - before it is too late.

• FIND A CAREER YOU LOVE: a guide to finding fulfilling work through self-exploration.
• PRACTICAL EXAMPLES AND EXERCISES: to inspire fresh thinking about our jobs and ourselves.
• BEAUTIFULLY PRODUCED: with classic black and white illustrations.
• PART OF THE NEW PAPERBACK SERIES 'LESSONS FOR LIFE'

How to live wisely and well in the twenty-first century—an introduction to the modern art of emotional intelligence.

Emotional intelligence affects every aspect of the way we live, from romantic to professional relationships, from our inner resilience to our social success. It is arguably the single most important skill for surviving the twenty-first century. But what does it really mean?

One decade ago, Alain de Botton founded The School of Life, an institute dedicated to understanding and improving our emotional intelligence. Now he presents the gathered wisdom of those ten years in a wide-ranging and innovative compendium of emotional intelligence which forms an introduction to The School of Life. Using his trademark mixture of analysis and anecdote, philosophical insight and practical wisdom, he considers how we interact with each and with ourselves, and how we can do so better.

From the reigning master of popular philosophy, The School of Life: An Emotional Education is an essential look at the skill set that defines our modern lives.

Calmness isn’t just a state of mind. It’s an essential life skill that, when practiced, can dramatically improve our everyday lives. This fascinating and pragmatic book argues that we can educate ourselves in the art of keeping calm not through slow breathing or special teas but through thinking. It patiently unpacks the root causes of our collective anxieties and gives us a succession of highly persuasive, beautiful, and sometimes dryly comic arguments with which to defend ourselves against panic and frustration. Part of a new essential paperback series from The School of Life, covering a range of emotional lessons needed in order to lead fulfilled and happy lives.

• THE ESSENTIAL MENTAL TOOLKIT provides readers with the skills needed to face life’s challenges with serenity. 
• EXPLORES THE ROOT CAUSES of our collective cultural anxieties. 
• A REFRESHING APPROACH to the art of finding calm in a chaotic world. 
• CLASSIC BLACK & WHITE IMAGES throughout. 
• PART OF THE NEW PAPERBACK SERIES 'LESSONS FOR LIFE'

An essential guide to modern etiquette—now in paperback 

Life is full of awkward social situations; we forget someone's name while making introductions, we're stuck on the elevator with our boss, we run into our ex on a first date. While these dilemmas might feel trivial, they tap into some of the deepest themes of our social existence: how to pursue our own agenda while honoring the happiness and needs of others? How to go beyond the surface level when relating to another person? 

Featuring twenty case studies from our modern world, this book puts good manners back at the center of our lives. Far from being old fashioned or stuffy, The School of Life argues, etiquette provides a framework through which to create a kinder and more considerate world. 

• THE ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO ETIQUETTE IN THE 21ST CENTURY 
• NAVIGATING OUR MOST AWKWARD SOCIAL SITUATIONS this practical and relevant guide offers tips and scripts. 
• TWENTY CASE STUDIES AND ACTIONABLE ADVICE for dealing with common social dilemmas. 
• HOW TO WIN PEOPLE OVER, how to approach strangers at a party, and how to write an effective thank you note - the chapters in this book address common perplexing social situations head on. 
• BLACK AND WHITE PHOTOGRAPHY THROUGHOUT

A bold rethinking of the wedding ceremony - and what comes before and after - designed to prepare us for modern marriage.

Many couples today feel uncomfortable with the rituals traditionally associated with getting married. The old ceremonies can feel too overtly religious and out of step with the complexities of contemporary relationships. In response to this dilemma, The School of Life has rethought the ideal wedding day and redesigned the entire process from scratch.

The book begins by proposing new methods of psychological preparation, providing practical advice on how to prepare not only for the day of the wedding, but for the long marriage that follows. Also included is a practical and thoughtfully redesigned wedding ceremony, covering everything from picking a venue to writing vows and selecting readings.

With their trademark wisdom and warmth, The School of Life presents a bold rethinking of one of humankind's most important and popular rituals.

• AN OUTLINE FOR A NEW KIND OF WEDDING CEREMONY: based on psychological theory rather than religious traditions.
  
• INCLUDES PRACTICAL INSTRUCTION: for marriage preparation, as well as advice for married life.
• GENDER INCLUSIVE: and non-heteronormative.
• PART OF THE NEW PAPERBACK SERIES 'LESSONS FOR LIFE'

We’re surrounded by books telling us how to be rich, or thin. This book is different from other self-help books—because it teaches us to be nicer. Niceness might not have the immediate allure of money or fame, but who among us wouldn’t like to be more patient, less irritable, or better listeners? 

 With a gently philosophical tone, this book gives us practical advice on how to forgive, how to reassure, and how to be generous. Being nice isn’t at all the same as being weak, or naive. In fact, niceness is one of the highest planes of human achievement—a super power, and a strength. Niceness deserves to be rediscovered and cultivated, and this book shows you how. Part of a new essential paperback series from The School of Life, covering a range of emotional lessons needed in order to lead fulfilled and happy lives.

• BEING NICER CAN BENEFIT OUR LIVES, often in unexpected ways.
• IN A TIME OF GLOBAL TURMOIL, this book encourages a focus on human kindness and empathy.
• CLASSIC BLACK & WHITE IMAGES throughout.
• PART OF THE NEW PAPERBACK SERIES 'LESSONS FOR LIFE'
• PRACTICAL AND ACCESSIBLE TIPS makes this an easy book to use in everyday life.

A guide to the art of failing well—with actionable tips and a gentle approach

This is a hopeful, consoling, gentle book about failure. Our societies talk a lot about success, but the reality is that no one gets through life without failing – in small and usually also in large ways. Sometimes our failures are very obvious, at other times, we feel we have to conceal them out of shame. This book encourages us to accept the role that failure plays for all of us and to feel compassion for ourselves for the messes we can’t help but make as we go through our lives.

Full of actionable tips on how to approach life's inevitable failures from small to large, this is the perfect volume for anyone who has ever gone through a breakup, suffered a career crisis, made enemies, fumbled a project, or wasted their time. (In other words: everyone.)

There is nothing more human than failing—and nothing wiser and more necessary failing well.

• PRAGMATIC ADVICE ON how to be resilient and endure regret, so we can recover and move on from despair and catastrophe.
• WE ARE NOT ALONE explores various examples of real-world failure and reminds us that we are not alone in making mistakes.
• EMPATHETIC AND REAL written from the perspective of those who have failed and survived their failure.
• CHAPTERS INCLUDE How to Deal with the Meanness of the World, What Love Really Is and Why It Matters, Finding Perspective, Fear and Self-Hatred, and Self-Compassion.

Essays in Love by Alain de Botton charts the progress of a love affair from the first kiss to argument and reconciliation, from intimacy and tenderness to the onset of anxiety and heartbreak. 

A Lover's Discourse by Roland Barthes examines the language we use when we are in love, arguing that it is not a language we speak. It is a language addressed to ourselves and to our imaginary beloved. It is a language of solitude, of mythology, of what Barthes calls an "image repertoire". 

On Love by Stendhal is a profound attempt to rationalize that most complex of emotions - romantic love. Inspired by unrequited passion, he brings together logical, clear-sighted analysis with all-consuming emotion, to most remarkable effect. The result is an astonishing work that bears all the hallmarks of Stendhal's later masterpieces. 

Conditions of Love by John Armstrong explores how our perception of love is formed by culture and history by drawing on writers such as Plato, Tolstoy and Freud. 

• TIMELESS WISDOM ON LOVE from acclaimed philosophers throughout the ages. 
• COLLECTABLE BOX SET of deluxe hardcover editions.
• ESSENTIAL CLASSIC AND MODERN TEXTS curated by The School of Life. 
• AWARD-WINNING DESIGN Winner of a Design and Art Direction award: Wood Pencil/Book/Design/Specialist & Limited Edition Books 2016.

The School of Life believes that literature has the power to transform lives. Each title in their Box Set collection contains essential classic and modern texts on a given theme. They're designed to be lifetime companions and guides. 

The Unquiet Grave by Cyril Connolly - A highly personal journal written by Cyril Connolly during the devastation of WWII, filled with reflective passages that deal with aging, the break-up of a long-term relationship, and the horrors of the war around him. 

Straw Dogs by John Gray - A radical work of philosophy that sets out to challenge our assumptions about what it means to be human. From Plato to Christianity, from the Enlightenment to Nietzsche and Marx, the Western tradition has been based on arrogant and erroneous beliefs about human beings and their place in the world. 

Collected Maxims by La Rochefoucauld - Deceptively brief and easy to read, La Rochefoucauld's shrewd, unflattering analyses of human behavior have influenced writers, thinkers, and public figures as various as Voltaire, Proust, de Gaulle, Nietzsche, and Conan Doyle. 

Meditations by Marcus Aurelius - These meditations offer a remarkable series of challenging spiritual reflections and exercises developed as the emperor struggled to understand himself and make sense of the universe. While the Meditations were composed to provide personal consolation and encouragement, Marcus Aurelius also created one of the greatest of all works of philosophy: a timeless collection that has been consulted and admired throughout the centuries. 

• COLLECTABLE BOXED SET OF HARDBACK EDITIONS
• INCLUDES FOUR CLASSIC MODERN TEXTS: The Unquiet Grave by Cyril Connolly, Straw Dogs by John Gray, Collected Maxims by La Rochefoucauld and Meditations by Marcus Aurelius. 
• DESIGNED TO BE LIFETIME COMPANIONS

A collection of enlightening quotes, delivering some of the most important lessons The School of Life has to offer.

This is a selection of the very best and most psychologically acute quotations from The School of Life, covering such large and diverse topics as relationships, regret, anxiety, work, friends, family, travel and, not least, the meaning of life. Some of these quotations elicit an immediate nod of recognition, others leave us thoughtful and a few are just plain funny.

The book is organized by The School of Life’s key themes – Relationships, Self-Knowledge, Sociability, Work, Calm and Leisure – that together amount to a tour around the most profound sorrows and joys of the human mind and heart. Offering comfort and consolation in a compact format with quirky illustrations by Avi Ofer, The School of Life: Quotes to Live By is ideally suited to our impatient, anxious and searching times.

• QUOTES ARE FOCUSED AROUND THE KEY MESSAGES FROM THE SCHOOL OF LIFE: on a range of themes, including - Relationships, Self Knowledge, Sociability, Work, Calm and Leisure.
• QUIRKY AND FUN ILLUSTRATIONS: throughout by Avi Ofer.
• A BEAUTIFULLY DESIGNED AND CAREFULLY CURATED OBJECT: that makes for an ideal gift for others or yourself.

Since around 1750, we have been living in the era of Romanticism, which has shaped the way we approach love, marriage, and sex. When it comes to love, this book argues, Romanticism has been a disaster. Full of real-life examples, lively humor, and cultural anecdotes, Relationships teaches us: 

• That love and sex may not always go together (and that’s OK)
• That discussing money early on, in a serious way, is not a betrayal of love That acknowledging respective flaws can be a couple’s superpower
• That we will never find everything we need in another person
• That spending two hours discussing whether bathroom towels should be hung up or can be left on the floor has its own dignity

With wisdom, wit, and compassion, this innovative guide paves the way to a new, brighter future for love. Part of a new essential paperback series from The School of Life, covering a range of emotional lessons needed in order to lead fulfilled and happy lives.

• DOWN WITH ROMANTICISM! this book teaches you how to find love, and keep it—without rosy-colored glasses. 
• LEARN THE SKILL OF LOVE—AND LIVING WITH YOUR PARTNER’S FLAWS a refreshing, skills-based take on how to approach relationships, and be realistic about long term partnership. 
• PRACTICAL RELATIONSHIP ADVICE like why to talk about money early on, and how to find dignity in the dreary domestic details of life.
• CLASSIC BLACK & WHITE IMAGES throughout.
• PART OF THE NEW PAPERBACK SERIES 'LESSONS FOR LIFE'

From the distinctive delight of holding a child’s hand to the paradoxical fun of a friendly argument to the peaceful joy of watching a sunset, this is a guide to the wealth of small pleasures that comprise our daily lives. 

In a culture that encourages the pursuit of large, self-aggrandizing gratification, this book is a refreshing reminder that small pleasures are in fact points of access to the great themes of our lives. By focusing our attention on the small moments that move us, we heighten our senses and return to the world with newfound excitement and enthusiasm. Part of a new essential paperback series from The School of Life, covering a range of emotional lessons needed in order to lead fulfilled and happy lives.

• 52 SHORT AND DIGESTIBLE meditations on life’s small pleasure, designed for five minute snatches of time in between real life demands.
• REFOCUS YOUR GAZE ON THE SMALL THINGS — and gain a fresh perspective and look at life with new found enthusiasm and energy.
• CLASSIC BLACK & WHITE IMAGES throughout.
• PART OF THE NEW PAPERBACK SERIES 'LESSONS FOR LIFE'

A book to offer clarity and guidance when facing the difficult decision of whether your relationship has a future

Should you stay or leave?

Whether we should stay in or leave a relationship is one of the most consequential and painful decisions we are ever likely to confront.

What makes the issue so hard is that there are no fixed rules for judgment. How can we tell whether a relationship is “good enough” or just not the right fit? How do we draw the line between longing and naivety? Is sex vital or can a relationship survive without it? Does someone “better” actually exist? How much should the feelings of children be considered (and what might they be in the long term)? Could one’s partner change, perhaps with therapy, or should one assume that who they are now is who they will always be?

All these questions typically haunt us as we weigh whether to stay or go. With no ax to grind, or ideology to promote, this book takes the reader (gently) through their options and opens their mind to perspectives they might not have considered. The goal is to help clarify what the reader wants—truly wants—deep down, so that the answer that emerges will be properly attuned to their unique circumstances and often very private aspirations. Here is a tool that carries the promise of the future we deserve.

This book aims to take the reader towards a time, perhaps presently hard to imagine, when the choice of whether to stay or go will no longer feel so agonizing. This book helps us understand ourselves deeply, helps us consider our options, minimize our regrets—and find the way ahead.

The second book in The School of Life's 'Secrets' series, offering lessons on the emotional skills necessary to build and maintain friendships 

Through The School of Life's unique approach to psychology, philosophy and cultural history, The Secrets of Successful Friendships offers a thoughtful exploration of why friendship is both more complex and more rewarding than we typically imagine, and offers strategic for creating strong bonds with others. It examines why we get lonely, what holds us back from deeper connections, and how we might develop the emotional intelligence needed for lasting bonds. 

With characteristic wisdom and warmth, the book explores different varieties of friendship, from casual acquaintances to profound lifelong connections, while offering practical insights into overcoming common obstacles like shyness, envy and fear of vulnerability. 

By explaining friendship's true purpose, the book gives us a chance to build new relationships of genuine depth and meaning.

The key ingredients to contented love—quintessential advice on relationships from The School of Life, with an approachable tone

It can sometimes seem a mystery why some couples stay together and thrive – while many more split up or drag on scratchily. While we might think happy love is left to chance, there are some identifiable secrets that underpin good relationships that we can learn and put into practice.

The first title of a new series, The Secrets of Successful Relationships draws upon the expertise of The School of Life therapists to teach us the key ingredients of contented love. Chapters such as “Learning to Love Oneself”, “Knowing What to Overlook”, “Good Listening” and “The Importance of Bad Dates” prompt us to think about how we can achieve success in love. In a tone that’s warm, encouraging and funny, we learn: how to communicate effectively, how to manage differences, what to do when sexual problems arise, how to air grievances, the best way to share a home and – when things grow truly problematic – how to judge whether or not we should stay or leave.

This handbook shows us how to take the necessary, careful, intelligent steps towards the contented love we deserve.

Learn to Talk. Learn to Listen. 

What would you like to tell your mother, if she could really listen?

If you could wave a magic wand, what would you want to be able to alter about your life?

When we end up in a really good conversation with a friend, we sometimes pay them a slightly unusual but sincere compliment: we say that chatting to them feels like talking to a good therapist. What we tend to mean is that they’re giving us space to talk, not interrupting us or dispensing advice: they’re actually listening. 

This game cannot turn us into real therapists (that would take years of training). But like many good games, it gives us a chance to try out, in an entertaining yet safe way, one of the most interesting sides of a great profession. 

The Therapy Game offers us a rare opportunity to listen and speak to one another at truly fulfilling length and depth.

• A DARKLY COMIC BEDTIME STORY FOR ADULTS the perfect gift for parents at any stage.
• FULLY ILLUSTRATED SPREADS by Ben Javens.
• A WITTY ALTERNATIVE to the happy endings of children's books.
• REFRESHINGLY HONEST helps readers navigate the trials of adulthood with humor.

• OVER 150 RECIPES TO NOURISH THE MIND
• INTRODUCES SIXTEEN KEY INGREDIENTS that evoke emotions like hope, playfulness, and self love.
• INCLUDES "CONVERSATION MENUS" that prompt fascinating conversations for eating with friends.
• FULL PAGE ORIGINAL PHOTOGRAPHY THROUGHOUT

52 cards to deepen and transform the experience of travel

Going travelling can be one of life’s greatest activities – but often, we fail to deepen the experience as much as we should and return home with some of the promises of our trip unrealized. 

Here is a pack of cards designed to help us get the very best out of travel – and to embed its greatest lessons in our minds. These cards contain questions that we can reflect on privately (in a journal or on a train ride) or ask others in a group. This is an ingenious, low-tech, high-impact solution to one of the great conundrums of travel: how to ensure that the reality of going away will match our hopes. And it makes a great bon voyage gift!

We’re dependent on language to express how we feel, and yet words often feel vague or inaccurate. There are lots of moods, needs and feelings that our own language has not yet properly pinned down. 

The perfect word - even if it comes from abroad - helps us explain ourselves to other people, and its existence quietly reassures us (and everyone else) that a state of mind is not really rare, just rarely spoken of. 

This set of cards defines some of our favorite words from the world’s languages and marries them up with complementary images to create cards that bring some of our most important feelings into focus. We’ve created them to prompt greater reflection about the nature of language and emotions. These cards are designed to reflect the excitement we find in encountering an old photograph or an object in a flea market or antique stall, one that feels familiar yet foreign and is thus infinitely evocative.

Examples:

DUENDE (Spanish): A heightened sense of emotion created by a moving piece of art. 

FORELSKET (Norwegian): The euphoric feeling at the beginning of love. We can’t believe someone so perfect has wandered into our lives. They enhance and complete us. We might report: ‘I was overpowered by forelsket as our fingers interlaced…’ 

YŪGEN (Japanese): Gives a name to a mood in which one feels that the universe as a whole possesses a mysterious and elusive beauty. Moonlight, snow on distant mountains, birds flying very high in the evening sky, and watching the sun rise over the ocean all feed this sensibility.

An insightful and consoling guide to the melancholic state of mind.

This is a book that celebrates the most neglected but valuable emotion we can feel: melancholy. Melancholy isn’t depression, rage, or bitterness.  It’s a serene, wise, and kindly response to the difficulties of being alive. It helps us navigate a wise and rational middle ground between extreme despair and naïve optimism.

But melancholy is a well-kept secret. It isn't celebrated or recommended. It remains relatively unexplored in a hyper-competitive, noisy, frantic age.

This book carefully collects and interprets a wide range of universally recognizable forms of melancholy, rendering us less confused by our precious yet elusive feelings. We discover everything from the melancholy of a Sunday evening and the melancholy of adolescence to the melancholy of parties and the infatuated melancholy of having a crush.

Offering a rich and varied portrait of melancholy and its range of emotions, this book leads the reader toward deeper insight, more authentic acceptance, and more honest self-compassion.

• AN IN-DEPTH EXPLORATION OF A COMPLEX EMOTION through the lens of art, architecture, literature, and philosophy.
• HOW TO INTERPRET AND ACCEPT our melancholy moods.
• INCREASE SELF AWARENESS through meditating on melancholy.
• EXAMINES 35 VARIETIES OF MELANCHOLY including: Dating and Melancholy, Loneliness and Melancholy, Adolescence and Melancholy, and Politics and Melancholy.

The follow-up to What Are You Feeling, a 2023 Eureka Honor Award Winner

A children’s guide to emotional empathy—follow Detective Feelings as he helps people identify and investigate their feelings 

It’s important to think about what others might be feeling, so we can understand the people around us better and be a good friend. Sometimes, it can be difficult to guess what someone else might be feeling, or their emotions may not be what we expect. 

What Are They Feeling? takes children on an exploration of the feelings of others. We follow Detective Feelings as they look for clues about how someone is feeling through their expression, body language and the situation. Are they smiling or frowning? What is happening around them? Has someone else been telling a joke or saying something a bit mean? 

We discover why empathy and sympathy are important, and how you can feel empathy for someone when you may not share the same experiences or problems as them, such as having to move to another country, or starting a new school.

Vibrant and amusing illustrations by award-winning illustrator Daniel Gray-Barnett bring the adventures of Detective Feelings to life.

Eureka Honors Award Winner

“This is a book for sharing. The grown-up who reads this book with you is saying that they really do want to listen and understand. They’re saying that it’s good to take time to talk about a feeling even if it seems very complicated…”

In the first of a series of children's books aimed at better understanding and articulating emotions, comes What Are Your Feeling? 

Taking a deep dive into 20 different feelings from sensitive to proud, quiet to mischievous, this book helps the child identify their emotions in ways that are healthy and easy to understand. 

With vivid  illustrations that bring each feeling to life by the award-winning Daniel Gray Barnett, this book is a wonderful tool for self awareness, social-emotional learning, and sharing how we feel.

“This is a book for sharing. The grown-up who reads this book with you is saying that they really do want to listen and understand. They’re saying that it’s good to take time to talk about a feeling even if it seems very complicated…”

• THE MUCH-ANTICIPATED FOLLOW UP to to Big Ideas for Curious Minds.
• A THOUGHTFUL AND PRACTICAL GUIDE to the world of careers, aspirations, and jobs.
• TALKS TO CHILDREN ABOUT MONEY in an an approachable, pragmatic way.
• BEAUTIFUL ILLUSTRATIONS by Tyla Mason throughout.
• INTERACTIVE ACTIVITIES for children 8 and up.

"Broadens horizons and provokes critical thought about an essential issue." - Kirkus Reviews

A guide for helping us focus on what we need to be fulfilled so that we can direct our energies and thoughts most effectively

Finding a partner.
Paying off the mortgage.
Reconnecting with my parents.
Less screen time.

It can be hard to decide what we really want to achieve in our lives; our ambitions are often scattered, diverse and difficult to pin down. This is a tool for helping us focus on what we need to be fulfilled so that we can direct our energies and thoughts most effectively. It can be hard to decide what we really want to achieve in our lives; our ambitions are often scattered, diverse and difficult to pin down. 

This attractive box contains 160 cards detailing our most common ambitions and longings, along with instructions on how to reflect on our goals, arrange them in a logical order of priorities and, where necessary, weigh up trade-offs. Using the cards will help us to reveal our true goals, even our purpose in life. The cards can be displayed, photographed or kept close to hand as a reminder of the path ahead. 

A simple-seeming but ingenious psychological tool for converting hunches and dreams into a realizable future.

How to find compassion, hope and perspective in the arts. 

Many people search for the meaning of life through music, film, literature and the visual arts. But how can we synthesize the emotions we feel through art? 

This book looks at how works of culture were made - that is, to improve the way we live. Connecting a range of (Western) cultural masterpieces with our own pains and dilemmas, we learn to better see culture as a resource, a way to address the agonies of being human. 

It provides us with enduring keys to unlocking culture as a way of transforming our lives. 

Using common themes - such as companionship, hope balance, compassion, knowledge, encouragement, appreciation, and perspective - and combining them with works from Bach to Renoir, The Beatles to Mel Gibson's Braveheart, Hamlet, Anselm Kiefer, and writers like Proust and Virginia Woolf, this book provides the key to unlocking culture. Indeed, the keys to transforming our lives.

• HOW MUSIC, FILM, LITERATURE AND VISUAL ART operate in our society and lives. 
• EXPLORES CULTURAL MASTERPIECES and how they relate to our everyday lives. 
• ILLUSTRATED with full color images throughout. 
• THOUGHT-PROVOKING CONCEPTS that enhance any future visit to a gallery, theater or cinema. 
• BEAUTIFULLY PRODUCED premium gift format.

Psychotherapy is one of the most valuable inventions of the last hundred years, with an exceptional power to raise our levels of emotional well-being, enhance our relationships, heal the wounds of the past, and help us mine our professional potential. But it is also profoundly misunderstood science.

Working with a therapist can make us less angry, improve our confidence, and, perhaps most importantly, make us more loving towards ourselves and others.

Through engaging historical analysis and relevant case studies, this book explains psychotherapy in depth: why we need it, how treatment works, and what the outcome of a therapeutic intervention looks like. The book argues that psychotherapy is the single greatest step any of us can take towards self-understanding and fulfillment.

This book attempts to explain psychotherapy: why it is needed by us all, how those needs are addressed by treatment and what the outcome of a therapeutic intervention could be. The book reflects a fundamental belief of The School of Life that psychotherapy is the single greatest step any of us can take towards self-understanding and fulfillment. A course of therapy stands to render us ever so slightly less angry, self-defeating, unconfident, lost and sad.

• PSYCHOTHERAPY EXPLAINED a demystifying guide to the purpose and meaning of psychotherapy.

• UNLOCK THE POWER OF THERAPY to improve self love, communication, trust, and honesty.

• EXPLORES POTENTIAL THERAPEUTIC OUTCOMES using case studies as examples.

• DEBUNKS COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS about the science of psychotherapy.

A collection of the essential emotional lessons we need in order to thrive.

We probably went to school for what felt like a very long time. We probably took care with our homework. Along the way we surely learnt intriguing things about equations, the erosion of glaciers, the history of the Founding Fathers, and the tenses of foreign languages.

But why, despite all the lessons we sat through, were we never taught the really important things that dominate and trouble our lives: who to start a relationship with, how to trust people, how to understand one’s psyche, how to move on from sorrow or betrayal, and how to cope with anxiety and shame?

The School of Life is an organization dedicated to teaching a range of emotional lessons that we need in order to lead fulfilled and happy lives – and that schools routinely forget to teach us. This book is a collection of our most essential lessons, delivered with directness and humanity, covering topics from love to career, childhood trauma to loneliness. 

To read this book is to be invited to lead kinder, richer, and more authentic lives – and to complete an education we began but still badly need to finish. This is homework to help us make the most of the rest of our lives.

• EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE essential skills and lessons to help you thrive at work, at home, and in relationships.
• GIFT beautifully packaged in premium gift format.
• A HELPFUL GUIDE to what really matters, written with directness and humanity.
• A PRIMER ON LIVING WELL philosophical concepts simplified and applied to modern life.

An interactive guide to our complex and elusive inner selves.

One of the most difficult tasks we face as humans is figuring out who we are. "Describe yourself" can be a surprisingly difficult task. Sometimes, we need prompts and suggestions to engage and energize us.

With unusual, entertaining, and playful exercises, this journal is designed to help us tease out and organize who we are. With beautiful designs by Marcia Mihotich throughout and mini essays on topics like relationships and work, this book shows us how our complicated, beautiful, and sometimes painful experiences all contribute to the richness of who we are.

• UNCONVENTIONAL AND PROVOCATIVE QUESTIONS to prompt honest self-reflection.
• AN INTERACTIVE JOURNAL OF SELF DISCOVERY with space for written answers.
• FULL COLOR ILLUSTRATIONS THROUGHOUT
• A COLLECTION OF MINI ESSAYS on topics like relationships, work, and culture.

Anyone we might marry could be wrong for us - even just a little bit. We know that perfection is not in the cards. And yet, errors of deep-seated incompatibility in married couples seem to occur regularly. 

This informative (and funny) book examines the reasons why - and then suggests a new approach to marriage. The time has come to bury the Romantic intuition-based view of marriage and learn to practice and rehearse marriage as one would ice-skating or violin playing, activities no more deserving of systematic periods of institution.

• BASED ON THE NEW YORK TIMES MOST-READ ARTICLE OF 2016
• A THOUGHT-PROVOKING ESSAY COLLECTION about relationships and marriage. 
• A PESSIMIST'S GUIDE TO MARRIAGE offering insight, practical advice, and consolation. 

A linen-bound notebook designed to accommodate ideas, aspirations and worries in the therapeutic activity of your thoughts

We have so many vague feelings of hurt, envy, anxiety, and regret, but for the most part we never stop to make sense of them. It’s too uncomfortable—and hard to do, because we are so often busy and frazzled, hyper-connected, yes, but perhaps lonely beneath the surface.

To really understand what we feel and think, we must turn away from distractions, common sense, and other people’s opinions. We need to develop intimacy with ourselves. Writing is ultimately the task of discovering and developing what we think. There could hardly be a more important personal goal.

A linen-bound notebook designed to accommodate ideas, aspirations and worries in the therapeutic activity of your thoughts. 

We have so many vague feelings of hurt, envy, anxiety, and regret, but for the most part we never stop to make sense of them. It’s too uncomfortable and especially difficult because we are so often busy and frazzled, hyper-connected yet a bit lonely. To really understand what we feel and think, we must turn away from distractions, common sense, and other people’s opinions. We need to develop intimacy with ourselves. Writing is ultimately the task of discovering and developing what we think. There could hardly be a more important personal goal.

A linen-bound notebook designed to accommodate ideas, aspirations and worries in the therapeutic activity of writing down your thoughts

It’s too un-comfortable and especially difficult because we are so often busy and frazzled, hyper-connected yet a bit lonely. To really understand what we feel and think, we must turn away from distractions, common sense, and other people’s opinions. We need to develop intimacy with ourselves. Writing is ultimately the task of discovering and developing what we think. There could hardly be a more important personal goal.