Looking for happiness? Then join a comedian who has searched for over two decades and claims to have discovered its secrets.

Gyles Brandreth, author of the Seven Secrets of Happiness, is set to share his insight into how to be happy and happiness lessons he has learnt from people such as Frank Sinatra and the Queen.

The book and show are the culmination of a search that began with the death of his best friend in 1996 and the loss of his seat in Parliament the next year.

Brandreth said: "My search coincided with having lost my father and my best friend. My sister died and then my brother died: they were going down like flies around me.

"And I thought, here I am, the professional happy man with the colourful jumpers, turning up on TV grinning away in the jolly knitwear. I was annoyingly happy.

"But inside it was a different story, so I started this search."

After years of research that took him from Vegas to the psychiatrist's chair, Brandreth has come up with seven secrets. His rules include stop thinking about yourself, live in the moment, don’t resist change, be happy and do something you love.

He said: "You can easily see the people who don’t have a passion: from the listless teenagers to the elderly just sitting around."

Brandreth is a BBC One Show reporter, Radio 4 Just A Minute regular and award-winning raconteur. The former Tory MP for Chester lost his seat in 1997.

He said: "They say you shouldn’t take it personally, but it’s hard not to when thousands of people get up on the same day with the sole objective of getting this fellow out, and it’s your name on the ballot paper.

"As my wife said, ‘when one door closes, it’s shut’."

Looking for Happiness Epsom Playhouse, Ashley Avenue Sunday November 24; 5pm; £17 Call 01372 742555; visit www.epsomplayhouse.co.uk.

 

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