I wish I could take this compact, powerful, clear-eyed, beautifully written book and put it in the hands of every parent, teacher and politician. At its core is a notion that is electrifying in its originality and its optimism: that character – not cognition – is central to success, and that character can be taught. How Children Succeed will change the way you think about children. But more than that: it will fill you with a sense of what could be.

Every parent should read this book – and every policymaker, too.

A timely and essential message … a brilliantly readable account of the growing evidence that inner resources count more than any amount of extra teaching support or after-school programmes when it comes to overcoming education disadvantage

Absorbing and important.

A whirlwind journey through the kinks of the human personality... In entertaining fashion, this psychologist aims to show that normal is just a number; that many of us have strange quirks so quite the moralising

A delightful, intelligent, and thought-provoking addition to the growing body of our sexual knowledge of self

Jesse Bering is the Hunter S. Thompson of science writing, and he is a delight to read - funny, smart, and madly provocative.

A colourful romp through psychology, philosophy and popular culture.

Jesse Bering is the Hunter Thompson of science writing, and he is a delight to read - funny, smart, and madly provocative.

A balanced and considered approach to this often inflammatory topic.

A colorful romp through psychology, philosophy and popular culture.

Witty... [Bering] employs examples and analogies that make his arguments seem like common sense rather than the hard-earned scientific insights they really are.

[T]he psychologist Jonathan Haidt shows in his wonderfully smart and readable "The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom" [that] modern science and history have a lot to say to each other

Haidt's remedy for the modern glut of frivolous self-help literature is to review and revise the classics, examining the ideas of thinkers like Plato, Buddha and Jesus in light of modern research into human behavior. Along the way, Haidt, a social psychologist, provides practical advice for parenting, romance, work and coping with the political and cultural divisions currently preoccupying the country. The new science he outlines mostly confirms ancient wisdom, but Haidt finds several instances where the two disagree, suggesting that the surest path to happiness is to embrace and balance both old and new thinking

This unusual book sets itself apart from the self-help category with its extensive scientific references, and intelligent, neutral prose, while the author's illuminating illustration of how the human mind works is both educational and refreshing

Rising stars of 2015: one to watch

Using a series of fascinating case studies as a framework, Dr O’Sullivan skillfully weaves the historical understanding, and misunderstanding, of functional illness into a series of narratives that are moving and thought provoking.

A sympathetic, insightful study of psychosomatic illness

An excellent study of psychosomatic disorders

Fascinating foray into the subject of how mental factors affect our health.

Her Book, shortlisted for the 2016 Wellcome prize, describes case histories…with precision and compassion.

It’s not only a beautifully written book…it’s also a book to start a revolution in healthcare.

Humane and deeply sympathetic.

Impressively vivid and sympathetic argument for the reality of the mind’s more harrowing inventions.

A compassionate, honest and compelling read.

She mixes an easily accessible vocabulary with complex medical terms, something which I found both enjoyable and informative… Ultimately I found this book quite fascinating… I would recommend this book, which contains some hard hitting and highly personal stories.

A great immersion in psychosomatic problems… If you want to get a head-on feeling for the clinical experience of psychosomatic patients, read this book.

[A] controversial but utterly compassionate memoir.

It is as addictive as a great box set makes you rethink some of your closest relationships and wonder about some of the people you know best; and above all, like all truly great book it is about love and compassion.

Epstein is too respectful of the complexity of his subject matter to leap to any grand conclusions. The book was conceived partially as a rebuttal to glib theorising, and it is all the more fascinating as a result

Fascinating from start to finish

Epstein forces us to rethink the very nature of athleticism

Looks at the science of extraordinary athletic performance.

Captivating… Dazzling and illuminating

Epstein is not afraid to follow science in “trekking deep into the bramble patches of sensitive topics like gender and race"

Captivating… In a particularly fascinating chapter, Epstein investigates an old theory that purports to explain why Jamaica produces so many Olympic sprinters