Matt Haig: Reasons to Feel Okay

BSL Captioned

Since the publication of his 2015 memoir Reasons to Stay Alive, Matt Haig has become one of Britain’s best-loved and bestselling authors, gently guiding his legion of fans on a path towards better mental health. Haig’s most recent novel The Midnight Library became another hugely popular success for the Brighton-based author, in its creation of a fictional library in which its heroine could choose a host of possible second chances in life. Now, Haig returns to non-fiction again with the launch of The Comfort Book. Conceived as a ‘kind of companion book’ to The Midnight Library, it is a collection of things Haig has written down to comfort himself at difficult moments. Drawing on maxims, memoir and the inspirational lives of others, these meditations celebrate the wonder of living – and all presented with Haig’s trademark kindness and generosity. As Jeanette Winterson so aptly said: ‘Haig uses words like a tin-opener. We are the tin.’

This event was filmed live at the 2021 Edinburgh International Book Festival. The author took part remotely while the interviewer, Georgia Pritchett, was on stage in the venue. Buy the book in our online Festival Bookshop

Book Festival News

Celebrating the 2024 Book Festival Celebrating the 2024 Book Festival
Monday 26 August

Enjoying this event? You can help us produce more like it.

Donate

Share

Watch more

Sarah Crossan with Sally Magnusson: The Other Woman Sarah Crossan with Sally Magnusson: The Other Woman Sarah Crossan, former Irish Children’s Laureate has been delighting and moving younger readers for years with her award-winning books — 2016’s One about the life of conjoined twins won the Carnegie Medal — and her move to adult fiction is a cause for… Joan Bakewell with Richard Holloway: Moving On Joan Bakewell with Richard Holloway: Moving On Situated in a leafy square in North London, Joan Bakewell’s generous townhouse was a regular meeting place for the extended family she adores, a happy by-product of a stellar career. Her recent decision to downsize was not just a pragmatic thing: it… Edwin Morgan: A Centenary Celebration of Scotland’s Great Poet Edwin Morgan: A Centenary Celebration of Scotland’s Great Poet Almost exactly ten years ago, on 17 August 2010, an eerie hush fell on the Edinburgh International Book Festival as word spread around Charlotte Square Gardens that one of the most significant poets of the 20th century, Edwin Morgan, had died. The… Richard Coles (2015 Event) Richard Coles (2015 Event) He was once part of 1980s pop duo The Communards but later resurrected his career as the Reverend Richard Coles, and is currently tending to his flock in a parish in Northamptonshire. In Fathomless Riches, he explains how he reconciled his old life… Douglas Stuart with Val McDermid: Knives, Doves and Forbidden Love Douglas Stuart with Val McDermid: Knives, Doves and Forbidden Love Shuggie Bain won the Booker Prize, sold over a million copies and catapulted Douglas Stuart to instant worldwide fame – his follow-up is doing nothing to dampen the hype. Set in the 1990s amid the brutal landscape of sectarian working-class Glasgow, Young… Tsitsi Dangarembga & Esi Edugyan: The Past, Present and Future of Blackness Tsitsi Dangarembga & Esi Edugyan: The Past, Present and Future of Blackness Tsitsi Dangarembga’s Black and Female brings together essays on the ‘nervous condition’ of being a Black woman in a supposedly post-colonial world. Esi Edugyan’s Out of the Sun comprises five essays on Afrofuturism, immigration and the concept of ‘passing’… Mieko Kawakami: Three Daughters of Osaka Mieko Kawakami: Three Daughters of Osaka While this year’s release of Breasts and Eggs marks the first time Mieko Kawakami has been translated into English (by Sam Bett and David Boyd), she has been a literary sensation in Japan for more than ten years. Her legions of fans include Haruki… Allan Little's Big Interview with Elif Shafak at the Edinburgh International Book Festival Allan Little's Big Interview with Elif Shafak at the Edinburgh International Book Festival Turkish-British author Elif Shafak is a respected campaigner for women’s rights and free speech. She wrote in the New Yorker that ‘wave after wave of nationalism and tribalism have hit the shores of countries across Europe, and they have reached the… Hilary Mantel: Inside the Head of Thomas Cromwell Hilary Mantel: Inside the Head of Thomas Cromwell More than a decade in the making, Hilary Mantel’s masterpiece is now complete with the publication of the final part of her Thomas Cromwell trilogy, The Mirror and The Light. As any student of 16th century England knows, Cromwell’s life ended abruptly… Alan Johnson (2015 Event) Alan Johnson (2015 Event) Amid a slew of politicians’ memoirs in recent years, Alan Johnson’s This Boy was comfortably among the finest: one critic called it ‘the best political testament I’ve ever read’. Now the former Home Secretary returns with a…