In this short book, Brown seeks to turn our contemporary ideas of happiness on its head. Brown’s target is a certain brand of modern self-help, where an alleged “law of attraction” is put forward to suggest that the more you desire something (money, status, power), the universe automatically responds to your desire and the object of desire materialises. In other words, you need only wish for happiness for you to be happy....

I had picked up Fergus Butler-Gallie’s hugely enjoyable “Field guide to the English clergy” when it first came out in Hatchards bookshop, Piccadilly, London. It was the perfect book for the Anglophile. One of the many charming aspects of English elite institutions is the continued presence of the Established Church. Most Oxbridge colleges boast a beautiful chapel, the overwhelming majority of which under Church of England management. Similarly for the Inns of Court and the Houses of Parliament....

1 How I fell into this rabbit hole (In what comes below, out of convenience I will refer to Ziwei Doushu (紫微斗數) as “Astrology” or “Chinese Astrology”.) I came across Ip Hon Leung’s books about Ziwei doushu, a school of Chinese astrology, quite by chance. I had just started moving from Hong Kong to the UK, but still had a lot of chances to return from time to time. One thing I will miss about Hong Kong is the easy availability of the public libraries, with their collection of Chinese books....

This is a place to collect my long spiels on various subjects, so that I don’t drone on about them with friends.