Ruby Wax pens good news guide for Penguin Life

Penguin Life has scooped And Now For The Good News...To the Future with Love, the fifth book by Ruby Wax.

Due to be published on 17th September, publishing director Venetia Butterfield acquired UK and Commonwealth rights, excluding Canada, from Caroline Michel at PFD.

The synopsis explains: “In her previous book, How to Be Human: the Manual, Ruby presented us with a guide through the chaos of the 21st century and a user’s manual for surviving life. Now, in And Now for the Good News…To the Future with Love, she's searched out the green shoots in business, technology, education, community, health and food that may be sprouting even now and, if we tend to them with care, they may just bloom into a spectacular future.  The way to stop living in such a climate of fear is to turn our attention to the possible and positive.”

Wax said: “I know what you’re thinking, is it some kind of macabre joke? Has she been in a coma? How can Ruby Wax write a book about good news when the world is facing the worst disaster since the Plague?

“Let me explain. I began writing in 2018, back when the world’s worries were somewhat different. Climate change, greedy bankers, exam results, crap politicians, mental health: these are still HUGE ISSUES, but even the ancient soothsayers reading pig entrails couldn’t have predicted this.

"This is my new mission: to share the green shoots of hope peeping through the soil of civilization. Literacy is at an all-time high, world-hunger is likely to be eradicated this century, technological improvements are saving lives ­– just to scratch the surface. I’ve talked to everyone from leaders to scientists to tech geniuses. I’ve done the research and practised what I preach. And my conclusion? Behind the clouds, the sun still shines.”

Wax has sold 445,881 books for £3.6m, and her bestseller is A Mindfulness Guide for the Frazzled (Penguin Life), at 118,444 copies sold in paperback and 47,962 sold in hardback.

Venetia Butterfield, publishing director for Viking and Penguin Life,s aid: “We are extremely proud to be publishing And Now for the Good News…To the Future with Love.  From tackling her own mental health issues to understanding her brain, stress and the human mind, she has entertained, informed and helped hundreds of thousands of readers with these brilliant books over the past six years. Now, she looks at the bigger picture and at this unprecedented moment in our history, who better than the outrageously witty, smart and infinitely accessible Ruby Wax be our guide to the future?”