The Year of Living Danishly by Helen Russell
Genre; non-fiction travel.
When she was suddenly given the opportunity of a new life in rural Jutland, journalist and archetypal Londoner Helen Russell discovered a startling statistic: the happiest place on earth isn’t Disneyland, but Denmark, a land often thought of by foreigners as consisting entirely of long dark winters, cured herring, Lego and pastries.
What is the secret to their success? Are happy Danes born, or made? Helen decides there is only one way to find out: she will give herself a year, trying to uncover the formula for Danish happiness.
From childcare, education, food and interior design to SAD, taxes, sexism and an unfortunate predilection for burning witches, The Year of Living Danishly is a funny, poignant record of a journey that shows us where the Danes get it right, where they get it wrong, and how we might just benefit from living a little more Danishly ourselves.
My thoughts:
This was one of the books that I listed as an anticipated read for 2016. Did it disappoint? It certainly did not. In fact, I’d go as far as saying it’s in the running for being on my end of year list for best reads of 2016.
The book starts with Helen explaining her life in London, how busy she is and how unfulfilled she feels on that particular treadmill and how her husband has been offered a job in Denmark and after some discussion they decide to give it a try for a year.
The move to Denmark isn’t about swapping one busy city for another busy city, Helen and her husband who she names for the remainder of the book as Lego man (because of his job) move to a rural part of Denmark and they move in the middle of winter. A bleak winter. And unsurprisingly, she wonders what they’ve done.
The chapters are a month by month breakdown of what Helen finds out about her living arrangements and how that would impact on the happiness of the Danes, so we get a personal insight from Helen and some interesting factual information on how the Danish live in comparison to the rest of the world. For instance, we start initially with their living arrangements and decorating them and then their taxes, their health care system etc. Plus, the Danish obviously do great pastries which Helen finds out you’re most definitely not supposed to eat one of, every single day!
This book had me absolutely howling out loud. Especially when Helen went to the language class and had a discussion with her teacher. I think my son thought I was losing it slightly.
If you fancy a feel good book that will have you laughing and also learning something at the same time then I’d highly recommend this book.
With thanks to @Vicki_Lagnehag on Twitter for bringing this great book to my attention last year.
Sounds like a great read for expats – but also to explore a country that if often vaunted as the ‘happiest place to live’. I’ve often wondered if that can be true with the darkness and flatness there…
It had me wanting to move there and it that’s with how dark and cold it is and I had to remind myself I’ve just had to buy a lightbox!
Anyone one up and moves to another country, it will be an adjustment. Bet she has some funny stories. And Lego man – must be a builder?
He went to work for Lego 🙂
Oh, this does sound good, Rebecca. Those ‘outsiders’ looks at a country can be informative, funny, interesting, and a lot more. Thanks for sharing.
It really was Margot and it reminded me to get myself out of the one genre more often as well!
Hmmm…I don’t think I had heard that the Danish were so very happy. Good to know. And I’m not sure I knew that Lego came from there. Another good fact. Suspect I may need to hunt this one down and read it. Sounds fun and do they also have ‘tiny houses’, like on the cover? LOL
Ha! I’m not sure about the tiny houses but part of their happiness does come from their love of interior design because they spend a lot of the winter months inside they like their houses to be beautiful. There was a lot I found out. Really interesting.
Rebecca, this does sound very good and I’d certainly like to read it. I have heard about the Danes being the happiest people in the world.
Had you? I hadn’t and for such a cold dark wintery place it did surprise me but the book is a great read and I think you’d find it really interesting.
I could do with a book that makes me laugh and I have a friend who works in Denmark for some of the time and we’ve promised to go over and meet him – this could just be the book for me!
Really? From what I’ve read, you want to go over in the summer though. Winter is bleak! Oh, and try ALL the pastries, apparently they’re to die for 🙂
Yes we’re planning for early summer – pastries sound amazing!!
I’d not heard about Denmark in this context, it just conjures up cold and dark images for me (to much watching of The Bridge probably) This sounds a great book.