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Brilliant non-fiction books you can read in a weekend

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Features

Books with ideas that could change your life

Assane Diop, played by Omar Sy, in the Netflix show, Lupin.

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What to read after watching Netflix’s Lupin

Notes for reassurance

A Little Happier

Derren Brown is a mine of wisdom, humanity and kindness - everything we need to sustain and nourish ourselves.

Derren began his UK television career in December 2000 with a series of specials called Mind Control. Since redefining the genre of magic for intelligent, modern audiences, he has become synonymous with the art of psychological manipulation. His TV shows have become must-see events. Amongst a varied and notorious career, Derren has played Russian Roulette on live television, convinced middle-managers to commit an armed robbery in the street, led the nation in a séance, stuck viewers to their sofas, successfully predicted the National Lottery, motivated a shy man to land a packed passenger plane at 30,000 feet, exposed psychic and faith-healing charlatans, and hypnotised a man to assassinate Stephen Fry. On top of this he tours the UK every year with a sell-out stage show and has recently finished a run on Broadway, NYC. 
 
He has published five books: Tricks of the Mind, Confessions of a Conjuror, Happy, A Little Happier and a book of his caricatures, Portraits.

Brilliant . . . crammed with wisdom and insight.' Stephen Fry on Happy 
 
In A Little Happier Derren Brown draws out the essential discoveries from his international bestseller Happy to help you lead your happiest life. 
 
Life is hard, messy and complex. But if we can learn to separate what we can control - our thoughts and actions - from all else beyond our control, we can find a surer footing with which to greet the world and experience our own concept of happiness. 
 
- None of this is real when each of us tells stories about our lives in too tidy narratives that are seldom true and rarely helpful. 
- We should be wary of goal setting: long-term goals fixate us on a future that may not happen and we may not wish for when we get there. 
- Our partner isn't right for us because no-one is. None of us is born for someone else. But perhaps those areas of frequent conflict are useful indicators of where we might ourselves be insufferable. 
 
A Little Happier's 17 inspiring and reassuring lessons will help you define and find your own happiness. Its lessons challenge us to think differently about the meaning of happiness and how we can over overcome anxiety in a difficult world. 
 
***** 'A no nonsense guide to seeing and appreciating the world we live in.' 
***** 'A brilliant, insightful and clear book. A beautiful accompaniment to Happy.' 
***** 'This book will have a big impact on people who suffer with anxiety and depression. A must read.'

Meet the People with Love

"Henri Cartier-Bresson (perhaps the most celebrated father of street photography and amongst the first to elevate it to an art) said somewhere that your first 10,000 pictures are your worst. So, given that I have probably taken about that many pictures in those few short years, I present in this book - a curated selection of what will become my worst pictures." Derren Brown

When he’s not mesmerising audiences on stage and TV, illusionist Derren Brown prefers a different trick: disappearing into a crowd with his camera. His pictures are beautiful, if understated. In Meet the People with Love, he reveals the magic of taking pictures without being spotted.

____________ 
 
As well as being an incredible stage performer, a brilliant writer and a talented painter, Derren Brown is also a fantastic street photographer. Here, for the first time, is a selection of his work. As he writes of his passion: 
 
'Street photography is a fitting refuge for those who look at life from a distance. It both sanctifies our remoteness (by offering the standpoint of the observer) and challenges it, insisting we approach with a spritely curiosity. It offers a safe route back into the world: the camera is an entry ticket to daunting social situations and extraordinary environments where we might otherwise feel entirely out of place. Suddenly we have a role: a reason to be present. And for those of us smitten by its appeal, it provides a means of fortifying and forgetting ourselves, while extending out into the world with a controlled compassion.'

Why More or Less Everything is Absolutely Fine

Happy

Derren explores the history and philosophy of happiness and explains why everything is fine, more or less...!

Witty, useful and beautifully written... this book grapples expansively with the most profound questions any of us face

Brilliant. Really brilliant and just crammed with wisdom and insight. It will genuinely make a difference to me and the way I think about myself. I'm going to recommend it to everyone I know.

Brown tries to resurrect the original Stoic ambitions here: not just to live well but to die well, too. His book is thoughtful, insightful and ultimately, well, helpful.

Til now, we've known Derren Brown as a supreme illusionist and magician. Now he surprises us with a new and brilliant identity: as a philosopher. Not just any philosopher. Brown takes philosophy back to its truest task: that of helping us to live and die well. His book is deeply informative, moving, wise and full of love. It sets out to change lives - and it will. Derren has pulled off a properly implausible trick: that of making the deepest ideas relevant, humane and urgent.

In this wise and perceptive book Derren Brown has conjoined personal experience, profoundly sensible psychology and the magic of philosophy to produce a really excellent account of how to be happy - really, maturely, properly happy. This is a wonderfully educative - and enjoyable! - book, and should be on everyone's reading list, always.

The Sunday Times Bestseller 
 
'Really brilliant and just crammed with wisdom and insight. It will genuinely make a difference to me and the way I think about myself.' Stephen Fry 
 
___ 
 
 
Everyone says they want to be happy. But that's much more easily said than done. What does being happy actually mean? And how do you even know when you feel it? 
 
In Happy Derren Brown explores changing concepts of happiness - from the surprisingly modern wisdom of the Stoics and Epicureans in classical times right up until today, when the self-help industry has attempted to claim happiness as its own. He shows how many of self-help's suggested routes to happiness and success - such as positive thinking, self-belief and setting goals - can be disastrous to follow and, indeed, actually cause anxiety. 
 
Happy aims to reclaim happiness and to enable us to appreciate the good things in life, in all their transient glory. By taking control of the stories we tell ourselves, by remembering that 'everything's fine' even when it might not feel that way, we can allow ourselves to flourish and to live more happily. 
 
___ 
 
 
What readers are saying: 
***** 'Immensely positive and life-affirming' 
***** 'This is the blue print to a good life' 
***** 'Thought provoking and potentially life-changing.'

Confessions of a Conjuror

The UK's best loved illusionist takes us on a journey to the centre of his brain

Weird, whimsical and, at times, uproarious... Brown takes us on a meandering pleasure cruise downriver. It is worth the journey

It combines a playfully baroque prose style with pinpoint observation and almost excruciating levels of self-examination, if not loathing. It's a fascinating experience

A fantastic voyage into Derren Brown's intensely sharp brain... A deeply funny and eccentric triumph

Closer to the work of someone like Malcolm Gladwell than to the... reminiscences of Brown's memoirs-writing contemporaries

A lovely kind of magic trick in book form

Derren was born in 1971 in Croydon. A precocious and puzzling only child, he liked to paint, foster obsessive habits and once set fire to a neighbour's boat by accident. In 1999 he was asked by Channel 4 to put a mind-reading programme together for television. It was an immediate success and gained Derren a cool underground kudos. Two more series followed and then in October 2003 Derren caused an international furore by playing Russian Roulette live on television. This secured his notoriety with the public and his big apartment in London. Further specials have followed, including The Seance, still the most complained about show in the history of television. 
Derren's workload keeps him exhausted and irritable fifty-two weeks a year and he continues to live in London with a large collection of taxidermy and a fatalistic parrot. He spends any free weekends painting and likes to receive gifts.

The inside of Derren Brown's head is a strange and mysterious place. Now you can climb inside and wander around. Find out just how Derren's mind works, see what motivates him and discover what made him the weird and wonderful person he is today. 
 
Obsessed with magic and illusions since childhood, Derren's life to date has been an extraordinary journey and here, in Confessions of a Conjuror, he allows us all to join him on a magical mystery tour - to the centre of his brain... Taking as his starting point the various stages of a conjuring trick he's performing in a crowded restaurant, Derren's endlessly engaging narrative wanders through subjects from all points of the compass, from the history of magic and the fundamentals of psychology to the joys of internet shopping and the proper use of Parmesan cheese. Brilliant, hilarious and entirely unlike anything else you have ever read before, Confessions of a Conjuror is also a complete and utter joy.

Hypnosis - Tricks Of The Mind

Brought to you by Penguin. 
 
Learn the key techniques behind successful hypnotism, including the preparation of your subject, inducing a trance and awakening your subject. Derren offers you tips on how to be safe, as well as revealing some of his own experiences on stage- good and bad!Music Publisher: BDi Music Ltd 
Composer: Steve Beresford. 
© 2009 Derren Brown (P) 2009 Penguin Audio

Derren was born in 1971 in Croydon. It was a difficult birth - his mother was in Devon at the time. A precocious and puzzling only child, he liked to paint, foster obsessive habits and once set fire to a neighbour's boat by accident. Derren went to study Law and German at Bristol University. During this time he began to perform magic in bars and restaurants, and gave occasional hypnosis shows. Then in 1999 he was asked by Channel 4 to put a mind-reading programme together for television, which became Derren Brown: Mind Control. It was an immediate success and gained Derren a cool underground kudos which he described as 'not enough'. 
Mind Controls 2 and 3 followed, then a series, and then in October 2003 Derren caused an international furore by playing Russian Roulette live on television. This secured his notoriety with the public and his big apartment in London. 'Bristol can shove itself', he said. Further specials have followed - Derren Brown: The Seance which was the most complained about show in the history of television. 
Derren's workload keeps him exhausted and irritable fifty-two weeks a year and he continues to live in London with a large collection of taxidermy and a fatalistic parrot. He spends any free weekends painting and likes to receive gifts.

Learn the key techniques behind successful hypnotism, including the preparation of your subject, inducing a trance and awakening your subject. Derren offers you tips on how to be safe, as well as revealing some of his own experiences on stage- good and bad! 
 
Discover how Derren dumbfounds millions with his challenging and controversial illusions and journey into the intriguing psychology of perception and memory. 
 
Elightening, entertaining and hilarious. Narrated by the master of magic himself. 
 
 
Composer: Steve Beresford 
Music Publisher: BDi Music Ltd

Memory - Tricks Of The Mind

Brought to you by Penguin. 
 
 
Learn how Derren astounds fans with his incredible memory. He teaches you some simple, fun systems to improve your memory, transform aspects of your life and wow an audience with your amazing powers of recollection. 
 
Discover how Derren dumbfounds millions with his challenging and controversial illusions and journey into the intriguing psychology of perception and memory. 
 
 
Enlightening, entertaining and hilarious. Narrated by the master of magic himself. 
 
 
 
Composer: Steve Beresford 
Music Publisher: BDi Music Ltd 
 
 
© 2009 Derren Brown (P) 2009 Penguin Audio

Learn how Derren astounds fans with his incredible memory. He teaches you some simple, fun systems to improve your memory, transform aspects of your life and wow an audience with your amazing powers of recollection. 
 
Discover how Derren dumbfounds millions with his challenging and controversial illusions and journey into the intriguing psychology of perception and memory. 
 
Enlightening, entertaining and hilarious. Narrated by the master of magic himself. 
 
Composer: Steve Beresford 
Music Publisher: BDi Music Ltd

Derren Brown

Finding comfort in a complex world THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER 
 
'Enlightening, thought-provoking and illuminating. Derren Brown asks questions about the world, and his intelligent curiosity benefits us all.' 
ELIZABETH DAY 
 
 
In A Book of Secrets, the star of 'Showman', and internationally bestselling author, Derren Brown shows us that it is in those moments when we are faced with adversity that we can find life's most lasting rewards. 
 
In thirteen fascinating chapters, Derren takes us on a personal journey - to the scene of a childhood humiliation, to lonely evenings on tour, to being paralysed by shyness at a dinner party, to navigating middle age and to finding love. 
 
Sharing moments of anger, frustration, loneliness and loss, Derren reveals how it's possible to find consolation and compassion. Even in our most challenging times we can find meaning and grow. 
 
'Derren Brown is a mine of wisdom, humanity and kindness - everything we need to sustain and nourish ourselves.' 
ALAIN DE BOTTON 
 
***** 'This is the most I've seen Derren lay himself bare' 
***** 'Funny, moving and always, always meaningful' 
***** 'Derren's best book to date and the best book I have read this year' 
***** 'Everything you need in this is a gem. I can't wait to read it a second time'

Derren Brown

A Book of Secrets

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