Solitude

This study challenges the widely-held view that success in personal relationships is the only key to happiness. In a series of biographical sketches, it demonstrates how many of the creative geniuses of our civilization have been solitary, by temperament or circumstance.

'Brings excellent news for those who, whatever their reasons for doing so, live alone … Heartening' Anita Brookner, Spectator

'Storr is an incapable of writing an uninteresting paragraph' Sunday Times'

How can we find value in spending time alone?

Many of the history’s geniuses were, by nature or circumstance, often solitary. Beethoven, Beatrix Potter, Henry James, Wittgenstein, Kipling. In this book, acclaimed psychiatrist Dr Anthony Storr explores the psychological value of spending time alone. How can we reconnect with what matters to us outside of our social relationships? How can we find an emotional difference between being alone and being lonely?

Insightful and inspiring, this is a book that can help us feel more comfortable spending time alone, and show how to use solitude to focus on our interests, values and creative energies beyond the social sphere.