The Optimist's/Pessimist's Handbook
Summary
The feel-good place to buy books
The Optimist's/Pessimist's Handbook by Niall Edworthy
'We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.' (Oscar Wilde) 'I tell you, we're in a blessed drain-pipe, and we've got to crawl along it till we die.' (H.G. Wells) Are optimists just reckless dreamers? Are pessimists miserable doom-mongers or just erring on the side of caution? Is the glass half empty or half full? Brilliantly compiled and beautifully written, this is a rich anthology of evidence from both sides of any argument. Covering everything from Africa to Beauty, Happiness to Patriotism to Walking, it is sop to any disposition; the perfect tool for squabbling families, a counterbalance for arguing couples and a mine of detail for the quarrelsome. The Optimist on the Afterlife: My heaven will be filled with wonderful young men and dukes. (Dame Barbara Cartland ) And the Pessimist: 'That's what Hell will be like, small chat to the babbling of Lethe about the good old days when we wished we were dead (Samuel Beckett).
Niall Edworthy is is the author of The Curious Gardener's Almanac and eighteen previous books under a variety of guises and noms de plume, covering military history, biography, sport, general humour and gardening. He lives in West Sussex with his wife and two children. Petra Cramsie worked as an editor for puzzle magazines, then as a writer/researcher making documentaries for TV, and then as an editor at Allison and Busby. After leaving London, she studied for degrees in Human Ecology (which taught her to be pessimistic), and Philosophy (which taught her how to be, if not optimistic, then at least philosophical). She lives in Herefordshire with her family.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780385614115 |
| ISBN 10 | 038561411X |
| Title | The Optimist's/Pessimist's Handbook |
| Author | Niall Edworthy |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Hardback |
| Publisher | Transworld Publishers Ltd |
| Year published | 2008-11-06 |
| Number of pages | 336 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |