The Wonderbox: Curious Histories of How to Live - Softcover

A fascinating rattlebag of intelligent, stimulating essays. The Wonderbox is very much in the mould of Alain de Botton's bestsellers (Financial Times)

Entertaining and instructive (The Times)

A cornucopia of delights. Completely fascinating, beautifully written and brimming with insights (Michael Wood, historian, film maker and author of The Story of England)

The author's enthusiasm for direct solutions to modern dilemmas is infectious. (Sue Gerhardt, author of Why Love Matters and The Selfish Society)

Think Alain de Botton meets Niall Ferguson ... a wonderful mix of social history and good ideas for everyday living. (Robert Kelsey, author of What’s Stopping You?)

Taking one hefty theme per chapter - such as love, work or home - Krznaric serves up a fascinating series of accounts of how we got where we are now, sifting the valuable from the worthless with an impressive indifference to current fashions. After reading The Wonderbox, endlessly shopping for stuff you already have will seem distinctly strange (Reader's Digest)

Ranging from such lofty issues as love and death to the finer points of carpentry, Krznaric offers a compendium of fascinating and quirky anecdotes and character studies, refiguring them as practical fables for everyday life. Though a pleasure to read cover-to-cover, this book lends itself perfectly to the occasional reader looking for workable solutions to any dilemma. The scope of the stories and the versatility of Krznaric's interpretations are at once fascinating and illuminating. (Emily Best We Love This Book)

A guaranteed pick-me-up for the early days of January! And a book I'm going to be returning to for years. (Clare English BBC Radio Scotland Book Cafe)

Inspiration for bold experiments in living. (The Oxford Times)

An intriguing upmarket self-help guide. (The Guardian)