An Introduction to the School of Life Press

Today I’m pleased to introduce you to a new press offered by The School of Life. It is an original publication line, that hopes to change the world. I hope you enjoy learning about their upcoming titles and their mission!

The School of Life is a global organisation dedicated to developing emotional intelligence. They apply psychology, philosophy, and culture to everyday life. Headquartered in London, it operates around the globe with ten international branches (Amsterdam, Antwerp, Berlin, Istanbul, Melbourne, Paris, São Paulo, Seoul, Sydney, and Taipei). The School of Life is a rapidly growing global brand, with over three million YouTube subscribers, 285,000 Facebook followers, and 135,000 Twitter followers.

The School of Life Press brings together the thinking and ideas of the School of Life creative team under the direction of series editor, Alain de Botton. Their books share a coherent, curated message that speaks with one voice: calm, reassuring, and sane. The School of Life book division is devoted to developing emotional intelligence. Their series of books address issues such as how to find fulfilling work, how to master the art of relationships, how to achieve calm, and how better to understand and – where necessary – change the world. These ideas are delivered in beautiful, insightful, and entertaining books that share a coherent, curated message that speaks with one voice: calm, reassuring, and sane. The press is under the direction of de Botton, whose own books include How Proust Can Change Your Life, Religion for Atheists, and The Course of Love.

The book division’s mission is simple: to focus on positive emotional developments through reading. Here are some of the upcoming titles for 2018:

CALM – Available in September
Few life skills are as neglected, yet as important, as the ability to remain calm. Our very worst decisions and interactions are almost invariably the result of a loss of calm – and a descent into anxiety and agitation. Surprisingly, but very fortunately, our power to remain calm can be rehearsed and improved.

It isn’t that we ever forget the value of calm, just that losing our composure is a constant risk. Every day brings with it new temptations to lose our tempers: the behaviour of partners, colleagues, children – and computers. Fresh distractions, worries and fears arise which leave us feeling anxious and unsettled.

SMALL PLEASURES – Available in September
A lot of what makes life worth living isn’t to do with great, heroic or costly things, but with modest pleasures that are all around us, largely unnoticed, available for almost nothing. It might be a beautiful sky, the smell of freshly cut grass, or a friend who understands how we feel.

So often, we exhaust ourselves and the planet in a search for very large pleasures – while all around us lies a wealth of small pleasures, which – if only we paid more attention – could daily bring us solace and joy at little cost and effort. But we need some encouragement to focus our gaze.

THE SCHOOL OF LIFE DICTIONARY – Available in October
Learn the Language of Emotional Intelligence

A dictionary is a guide to language. This dictionary is for the distinctive language that The School of Life ‘speaks’: that of emotions. It is a selection of over 160 words and phrases that shed light on our feelings about ourselves, other people, and the workings of the modern world.

Too often, we struggle to find the right words to explain what we mean; this dictionary is a tool to help us convey our true intentions with economy and precision.

The School of Life – an organisation dedicated to making sense of our emotional lives – offers us a complete vocabulary with which to understand some of our key emotional states and ideas and to express them succinctly and successfully to the world.

SELF-KNOWLEDGE – Available in November
In Ancient Greece, when the philosopher Socrates was asked to sum up what all philosophical commandments could be reduced to, he replied: ‘Know Yourself’. Self-knowledge matters so much because it is only on the basis of an accurate sense of who we are that we can make reliable decisions – particularly around love and work.

This new essay book takes us on a journey into our deepest, most elusive selves and arms us with a set of tools to understand our characters properly. We come away with a newly clarified sense of who we are, what we need to watch out for when making decisions, and what our priorities and potential might be.

SORROWS OF LOVE – Available in December
A consoling essay on how to deal with the (inevitable) sorrows of love.

Love has, quite unfairly, come to be associated with being happy. However, it is also one of the most reliable routes to misery. We tend to treat our sadness individually, as if it were unique and shameful. But, as this book explains, there are some solid reasons why love should be highly sorrowful at times. The good news is that, by understanding our romantic troubles and griefs, seeing them in their proper context and appreciating their prevalence, we will cease to feel so alone and so cursed. This essay is not a study in despair; it is a guide to a more consoling, humane, and in its own way, joyful perspective on the complexities of love.

HOW TO FIND LOVE – Available in December
Choosing a partner is one of the most consequential and tricky decisions we will ever make, and the cost of repeated failure is immense. This book explains why we have the ‘types’ we do, and how our early experiences give us scripts of how and whom we love. It sheds light on harmful repetitive patterns and the extent to which we are not always simply choosing people who can make us happy. We learn the most common techniques we use to sabotage our chances of fulfilment and why, despite their costs, we unwittingly engage in them. The book provides a crucial set of ideas to help us make safer, more imaginative and more effective choices in love.