“It is a strange paradox, that many of the clearest, most comforting life lessons are learnt while we are at our lowest. But then we never think about food more than when we are hungry and we never think about life rafts more than when we are thrown overboard.”

The Comfort Book is a collection of consolations learned in hard times and suggestions for making the bad days better. Drawing on maxims, memoir and the inspirational lives of others, the meditations celebrate the ever-changing wonder of living. This book is for when we need the wisdom of a friend or a reminder that we can always nurture inner strength and hope, even in our busy world.

Matt Haig is the author of Reasons to Stay Alive, Notes on a Nervous Planet and the novel The Midnight Library.

Emma Gannon is a Sunday Times bestselling author, speaker, novelist and host of the award-winning creative careers podcast Ctrl Alt Delete. Her new book (Dis)Connected: (how to stay human in an online world) will be published in January 2022.