Published in 2023
304 pages
Brigid Delaney is a political speechwriter for Australia’s minister for finance and minister for women. For many years she wrote the popular weekly column Brigid Delaney’s Diary for the Guardian. She cocreated the Netflix series Wellmania, based on her last book, and cofounded the anti–death penalty movement Mercy Campaign. She lives in Australia.
What is this book about?
We’re all searching for answers to the biggest questions. How to be good? How to find calm? How to properly grieve? How to beat FOMO? How to work out what truly matters? Well, good news is that the wisest minds in history asked the exact same questions – and they found answers. Their ancient philosophy of Stoicism can show us that we today are in fact already in possession of the very tools we need to excavate this much-needed wisdom for ourselves.
So into the past we go with Brigid Delaney, to a time not unlike our own: one full of pandemonium, war, plagues, pestilence, treachery, corruption, anxiety, overindulgence and, even then, the fear of a climate apocalypse. By learning and living the teachings of three ancient guides, Epictetus, Seneca and Marcus Aurelius, Brigid shows us how we can apply these lessons to our modern lives in a way that allows us to regain a sense of agency and tranquillity.
Stoicism can be tough medicine to swallow, but not here-this book is awash with insight, humour and compassion. Timely and so very useful, and filled to the brim with ways you can wrest back control, here are all the reasons not to worry.
