The Soul Tourist: In Desperate Pursuit of Happiness

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Middle-aged, mildly misanthropic and a touch disillusioned with the state of the world and his life, Dom Joly sets off on a global quest to answer one deceptively simple question: how on earth do you become happy?

In The Soul Tourist, the grumpy ex-goth and multi-award-winning comedian tries to ditch the comfort of cynicism and heads out "in desperate pursuit of happiness." From India's ancient spiritual heartlands-where he bends himself reluctantly into yoga poses and submits to the mysteries of Ayurvedic medicine-to the neat, contented streets of Denmark, officially one of the happiest countries on Earth, Joly road-tests the world's most popular prescriptions for joy.

Along the way he checks himself into a monastery in search of silence (and perhaps salvation), experiments with chemically enhanced euphoria, and immerses himself in the UK's largest wellness festival-braving sound baths, tree hugging and an army of tie-dye optimists. With his trademark self-deprecating wit and sharp observational eye, Joly throws himself into each experience, forever torn between scepticism and a sneaking desire to be converted.

Is happiness a place, a practice, a pill-or just a state of mind? And can a middle-aged curmudgeon truly change?

Moving, funny and unexpectedly profound, The Soul Tourist is a travel memoir for anyone who has ever rolled their eyes at the self-help industry-while secretly wondering if it might just work.

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Dom Joly

Dom Joly

Best known for his multi-award winning, global-smash-hit comedy series Trigger Happy TV, Dom's other comedy television credits include This is Dom Joly, World Shut Your Mouth and Fool Britannia.

Dom also makes TV travel shows including Dom Joly's Happy Hour and Dom Joly's Excellent Adventure in which he respectively travelled the world drinking too much and went on a mammoth road trip through Lebanon and Syria. His most recent travel series How Beer Changed the World sold to fifty-nine countries.

Dom is also an award-winning travel writer and has visited over a hundred countries. His books include The Dark Tourist, Scary Monsters and Super Creeps, The Downhill Hiking Club: A Short Walk Across the Lebanon and Such Miserable Weather: An English Staycation.

His latest book The Conspiracy Tourist, sees him travelling the world hanging out with conspiracy theorists and will be published in November 2023. He will tour the UK in 2024 with a new stage show based on this book.

Dom has appeared on a multitude of shows such as I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here, The Island with Bear Grylls, Splash, Pilgrimage and Celebrity Hunted to name but a few.

He has also directed, produced and starred in innumerable adverts and podcasts including an Audible Original American travel series and Earworm, his chart-topping prank phone call podcast.

He has made pop videos for Blur, Ian Brown, Betty Boo, Peter Hook and Deco.

He is a columnist for Cotswold Life and has written extensively for most major newspapers.

He is the voice of Jack FM radio and hosts a regular Sunday radio show- Dom Joly's Sunday Session 12-2pm.

He is also an ambassador for Save the Children.

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