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The Year of Living Danishly: Uncovering the Secrets of the World's Happiest Country Paperback – 1 Jan. 2015
Purchase options and add-ons
- Print length280 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherIcon Books
- Publication date1 Jan. 2015
- Dimensions13.97 x 2.54 x 3.18 cm
- ISBN-10184831812X
- ISBN-13978-1848318120
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About the Author
Product details
- Publisher : Icon Books (1 Jan. 2015)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 280 pages
- ISBN-10 : 184831812X
- ISBN-13 : 978-1848318120
- Dimensions : 13.97 x 2.54 x 3.18 cm
- Best Sellers Rank: 846,285 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- 8,821 in Cultural Studies
- 50,802 in Travel & Tourism (Books)
- Customer reviews:
About the author

Helen Russell is a British journalist and internationally bestselling author of The Year of Living Danishly, Leap Year, Gone Viking, The Atlas of Happiness and How To Be Sad - the key to a happier life.
Formerly the editor of MarieClaire.co.uk, Helen has worked as a Scandinavia correspondent for the Guardian, as well as writing a longstanding column for the Telegraph. She now lives in Denmark and writes for titles including The Observer, Stylist, Metro, Grazia and The Independent.
Praise for The Year of Living Danishly:
'A hugely enjoyable romp through the pleasures and pitfalls of setting up home in a foreign land' The Guardian
‘Russell is possessed of a razor-sharp wit and a winning self-deprecation’ The Independent
'The Book that 1) I didn’t put down 2) confirmed that life didn’t need to be so hectic 3) I recommended to all the busy people in my life' Huffington Post USA
'In best-selling travel book The Year Of Living Danishly, Londoner Helen Russell reveals what happened when she swapped the capital for a new life in rural Jutland. It’s A Year in Provence for the modern age' Mail on Sunday
'Learn how to live simply and with joy in Denmark' Forbes magazine, Top Travel Book
'Brilliant - I've actually fallen out with friends I've recommended it to so many people' Rob Beckett
Praise for Leap Year:
'It's brilliant stuff' BBC Radio 2
'A wonderful and humorous book. I can't remember when I last read a book which made me smile or laugh so often. Highly recommended if you're considering leaping into something new or making a change' Meik Wiking, author of The Little Book of Hygge
'Makes some pretty big promises - but with practical life lessons, witty first-hand experiences and no-BS advice, it really does what it says on the tin' Stella, The Sunday Telegraph
'Written in Russell's signature style that fuses honesty with wit, Leap Year is both a heart-warming tale and a useful guide with hints and tips on how to better deal with change ... Leap Year is a charming book that will resonate with readers the world over' The Literary Edit
Praise for Gone Viking:
'Laugh out loud funny with a good dollop of insight - I loved it!' Katie Fforde
'Funny and moving' Good Housekeeping
'She brought us Hygge, and now Helen Russell’s Gone Viking. I laughed out loud as wits-end dentist Alice is put through her norse paces. It’s time we all went a little Viking' Grazia
'Laugh-out-loud comedy with surprising depth at its heart' S Magazine
Praise for The Atlas of Happiness:
'It's a delight, as well as being a gorgeous-looking book. You'll buy it as a gift only to find yourself using it as a crutch to get to spring’ Grazia
‘This beautifully illustrated book takes us on a journey around the world to discover how to be happy’ Psychologies
'In this beautifully illustrated and fascinating guide, she explores the unique methods that countries adopt in order to find inner peace’ Emerald Street
‘This original and informative guide to global happiness provides plenty of inspiration. The perfect read to help you refocus your life and refresh your perspective’ Woman
Praise for How To Be Sad:
'So brilliantly researched and written with great energy. And boy, did it make me think – I must have turned down 50 pages to come back to later!' Pandora Sykes
‘This is such an important subject and we would all be better off if we absorbed Helen’s robust research and kind advice and allowed ourselves to be sad’ Cathy Rentzenbrink
'So brilliant, so heart warming, so extraordinary, so vulnerable and uplifting… wonderful. Should be compulsory reading for everyone' Helen Thorn
'Helen Russell is back with another cracker of a book exploring how our relationship with sadness affects our happiness' Psychologies
‘In any human life there are going to be periods of unhappiness. That is part of the human experience. Learning how to be sad – is a natural first step in how to be happier’ Meik Wiking, CEO, The Happiness Research Institute
‘I didn't think I wanted to read this book until I read it. Then I couldn't stop. An absolutely gorgeous and insightful and intelligent and necessary book’ Hollie McNish
‘A very persuasive account of how accepting sadness as a key part of our human experience can lead to more fulfilment and ultimately more happiness. Full of moving personal insight and brilliant research. This book reframes feeling sad’ Anna Jones
‘Helen brings an entirely unique combination of research, interviews, transparency, and story-telling to every book she writes. Thank you, from all of us’ Joshua Becker, founder of Becoming Minimalist
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It started with the cute nicknames for everybody and it didn't get any better from there. I sympathised with the sentiment of moving your life abroad, away from friends and family and there is a great deal of sincerity and emotion when she talks about dealing with them – I'm an expat myself so could relate to an extent. But other than that, the rest reads like 'Dear diary...' entries. There are funny moments and snow and tears and pastries and dogs and candles... I'm not trying to take anything away from the experience, it's its written translation I have a problem with.
Especially when you 'crack' the formula of the book, that's about a specific problem/subject, that's talked about with a friend/neighbour, along with a funny anecdote then a paragraph or two to support the evidence and research. I found it so annoying that I was skipping paragraphs starting with or containing phrases like "a study published by..." or "numerous studies have shown..." Admittedly sources are a good thing when writing a book but I guess by that time I was already annoyed by the nicknames and the writing that I found that repeating pattern, well...annoying.
Yes, it's funny at times and the humour of a British abroad will always be entertaining, but I didn't get anything more than that, hence the disappointment. I think my expectations might have been a bit high, because I read it halfway through reading Michael Booth's excellent The Almost Nearly Perfect People, so going from such a substantial source of historic facts and cultural insights to a sort of 'lighter' read made the difference even more profound. I was hoping there would be much more to take out of it but halfway through I was just reading it so I could finish it.
In conclusion, funny and entertaining (if you can get over the style of writing) and a good train/bus read for anyone remotely interested in anything Danish. If that's what you're after, then this might be for you. If you want to know more about Denmark, its history, society, culture and people, then you might want to check the Almost Nearly... book out as it provides a better understanding of the country and Scandinavia in general.
Before I knew the idea of moving back to the UK was as big and slightly scary as the actually moving to Denmark in the first place.
Anyway, I see so much in Helen’s adventure that we had to navigate ourselves when we got here. Things like riding a bike for the first time in nearly a decade… that was an adventure. Many annoyed motorists and cyclists as I get it wrong again! But also many wienerbrød consumed and Hygge and happiness than ever before.
If you’re considering the crazy adventure or maybe you’re already on one. Take a read. You’ll love it.
I knew very little about Denmark or Danish culture before buying this book, apart from having an old Danish schoolfriend who always struck me as super-cool and super-happy, and hearing Sandi Toksvig talk about it on the News Quiz, her wry humour delivered in Queen's English more impeccable than the Queen's. Even so, I've always felt the inherent Dane is always present not far beneath her British boarding school veneer. Otherwise all I knew was that it was small, expensive, and big in bacon.
The cover of this book tells us it's also a very happy place. But why? The author Helen Russell treats it as her mission to find out, when she accompanies her husband on a year's posting with his job (oh joy, it's to work for Lego - but of course!) The archetypal stressed-out London journalist, all but burned out by her staff job on a women's magazine, is ripe for conversation to most aspects of Danish life e.g. the much shorter working week and the the refreshing national supposition that only the inefficient work long hours, unlike the customary British corporate assumption that it's a sign of dedication that will fast-track you to promotion.
She is at first shocked, then won over by the virtual hibernation that occurs during the ong dark winter nights, when people embrace the excuse to stay home and enjoy quality family time.
She loves the flat social hierarchy where all jobs are considered equal, and where no-one much minds paying high taxes, knowing they're funding generous education, social and medical care.
Not all her findings are as winning e.g. the famous pigs for Danish bacon are all reared indoors, intensively, but most of them are.
This is a well-researched and thoughtful book, narrated by a likeable author who is clearly passionate and positive in the pursuit of her mission. She must have been a very supportive companion to her Danish husband - being an expat wife isn't easy, but she's done well on that score.
Whether or not you plan to travel to Denmark, this is an enjoyable and worthwhile read, providing a thorough introduction to a culture that while not far from our own geographically, is very different in many ways. It may make you want to reexamine your own daily life and culture, and encourage you to embrace what's good about the Danish alternatives, where you find something wanting. It'll probably put you right off Danish bacon, though.










