On Being Nice: This guidebook explores the key themes of ‘being nice’ and how we can achieve this often overlooked accolade. (The School of Life Library)

Much of today’s media tells us to be thinner, richer, and more successful. This book tells us how to be nicer. Niceness may not have the immediate allure of money or fame, but we can all benefit from practical advice on how to be more patient, better at listening, less irritable, and less defensive.

This is a guidebook to the uncharted landscape of niceness, gently exploring the key themes of this often overlooked quality. We learn how to be charitable, how to forgive, how to be natural, and how to reassure. We learn that, rather than indicating naivety, kindness and empathy are in fact unique strengths-and deserve to be rediscovered as the greatest of all human achievements.

• RECONSIDERS NICENESS as a powerful and effective quality.
• A PRACTICAL GUIDE to practicing kindness and empathy in a chaotic world.
• ENCOURAGING AND OPTIMISTIC designed to resonate with everyone.
• SERIES EDITED BY ALAIN DE BOTTON, founder of The School of Life.