We spend our lives in search of happiness. We tell ourselves it’s just around the bend. If only we had a little bit more money. Or I’ll be happy once ...

To write his book, Reason to be Happy (Penguin), Basu ... The challenge is to avoid the search for happiness, but to get rid of unhappiness. Let life be without unhappiness, the Buddha had remarked.

Whether you’re feeling blue or on top of the world: here are 50 writers, including Jane Austen, Marian Keyes and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, whose words speak to what makes us happy. Big happiness ...