Matt Haig

Notes on a Nervous Planet is out in paperback today!

Here’s some of the lovely reviews:

“Witty, honest and engaging . . . A worthy successor to Reasons to Stay Alive” (Sunday Times)

“An honest and human guide to coping with the modern world . . . Notes on a Nervous Planet is generous, sensible and timely. Reading it will probably be good for your mental health. Especially if you leave your smartphone in another room . . . Thought-provoking” (Guardian)

“Thought-provoking . . . [Haig’s] hard-won wisdom asks us to think about how we can live in the present – and in so doing, he creates a wonderfully perceptive chronicle of life in the always-on social media age. A real-world guide to mindfulness” (Observer)

“Beautiful, honest and wise” (FEARNE COTTON)

“Notes on a Nervous Planet is a fascinating look at the link between anxiety and the world we live in . . . [Haig is] one of our warmest, wittiest and wisest writers” (Mail on Sunday)

“Genius” (RUBY WAX)

“Haig’s bestseller Reasons to Stay Alive was an engaging self-help memoir which mined personal trauma for valuable life lessons. This follow-up is a rag-bag of personal experience, thoughts and feelings . . . some thought-provoking, some pertinent and important . . . He’s a smart operator who knows his readership and genuinely wants to help them . . . I reached the last page admiring the author’s inventive energy and insight” (Bel Mooney Daily Mail)

“Take Notes on a Nervous Planet twice daily, with or without food. The book is crammed with wisdom, insight, love and wit” (STEPHEN FRY)

“Haig tackles everything from internet anxieties, phone fears to life overload, putting the chaos into beautiful words” (Sunday Post)

“A primer for how to live in the present moment. This book will find grateful readers everywhere” (NIGELLA LAWSON)

I’ve written a new children’s book called EVIE AND THE ANIMALS and the wonderful Emily Gravett is illustrating it! It will be published on 6th June in the UK. More details very soon.

Here are the tour dates for 2019. More information can be found at www.faneproductions.com/matthaig.

Thanks to the wonderful rights team at Canongate my books have found some lovely homes around the world. Reasons to Stay Alive has just been sold to it’s 39th international territory. (For any further information on international rights please contact the Canongate Rights team.)

Notes on a Nervous Planet is published in America on 29th January 2019 by Penguin

More international rights info is here.

Notes on a Nervous will be published in America by Penguin on January 29th 2019.

A follow-up to Matt Haig’s internationally bestselling memoir, Reasons to Stay Alive, a broader look at how modern life feeds our anxiety, and how to live a better life.

The societies we live in are increasingly making our minds ill, making it feel as though the way we live is engineered to make us unhappy. When Matt Haig developed panic disorder, anxiety, and depression as an adult, it took him a long time to work out the ways the external world could impact his mental health in both positive and negative ways. Notes on a Nervous Planet collects his observations, taking a look at how the various social, commercial and technological “advancements” that have created the world we now live in can actually hinder our happiness. Haig examines everything from broader phenomena like inequality, social media, and the news; to things closer to our daily lives, like how we sleep, how we exercise, and even the distinction we draw between our minds and our bodies.

“A primer for how to live in the present moment, this book will find grateful readers everywhere.” —Nigella Lawson, author of How to Be a Domestic Goddessand Nigella Bites

“Take Notes on a Nervous Planet twice daily, with or without food. Crammed with wisdom, insight, love and wit.” —Stephen Fry

“Likable and thought-provoking . . . A wonderfully perceptive chronicle of life in the always-on social media age.” —The Guardian

“Witty, honest, and engaging. Haig shows great skill in describing the ‘invisible cyclone’ of depression. . . A worthy successor to Reasons to Stay Alive.” —The Sunday Times

“Notes on a Nervous Planet contains lists, imagined conversations, essays, and personal stories that critique the damage that worry—about the environment, politics, the news, and everything else that demands our attention on a daily basis—wreaks on our ability to live a full life. Haig artfully, powerfully counters these challenges with battle-tested advice from his own hard-won experience.” —Booklist

“In this illuminating follow-up to his memoir, Reasons to Stay Alive, novelist and children’s author Haig (How to Stop Time, 2018, etc.) continues to explore how the rapid pace of our modern world can adversely affect our psyche… In bite-sized chapters, the author considers the various issues that plague us, including our increasing addiction to smartphones and social media, the emotional impact of absorbing 24-hour cycles of often grueling international news events, and our collective lack of sleep…. [An] often wise and inspiring self-help title strengthened by the author’s very personal experiences and acquired insight.” —Kirkus

“[Haig] is a smart operator who knows his readership and genuinely wants to help them . . . I reached the last page admiring the author’s inventive energy and insight.” —The Daily Mail

“Warm and wise. If the modern world is making you anxious, this is the perfect book for you.” —Claudia Hammond, author of Time Warped

“Beautiful, honest and wise.” —Fearne Cotton, BBC Radio

“A convincing, wise, and reassuring book.” —The Irish Times

“Is the modern world doing our heads in? Matt Haig shares our fears and gives answers to the question from many different angles. An enthralling book.” —Jo Brand, author of The More You Ignore Me

“Warm and wise. If the modern world is making you anxious, this is the perfect book for you.” —Claudia Hammond, author of Time Warped