Are you truly alive? Move from mindfulness to thoughtfulness as Theodore Zeldin opens up new perspectives on life in a series of intimate conversations with figures both famous and obscure, from civilisations throughout time. Each chapter reconsiders one of the big decisions that every person has to make. 

What is the answer to the shortage of soul mates? How can one escape from work colleagues who are bores and organisations that thrive on stress? How could the unappreciated, rejected, or betrayed find less conventional ways of expressing their dismay? How could the quarrels within and between nations, religions, and temperaments open the way for a new attitude to disagreement? How can humour erode hypocrisy more effectively? How can the yearning for beauty help to make each life into a work of art? 

This is not yet another book offering instant cures. Instead of asking you to change your ways, it takes you on a journey of exploration into ambitions, affections, memories and experiments that might lead today's increasingly demanding humans nearer to filling the voids in their existence and becoming truly alive.