Matt Haig: Reasons to Feel Okay

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