Get Free Shipping on orders over $89
Happy Land : Finding my inner Finn: forty years in the world's happiest country - Tim Bird

Happy Land

Finding my inner Finn: forty years in the world's happiest country

By: Tim Bird

Hardcover | 8 January 2026

At a Glance

Hardcover


$37.99

or 4 interest-free payments of $9.50 with

 or 

Ships in 15 to 25 business days

A personal view of 'the world's happiest country' from an accidental expat in Finland

Tim Bird arrived in Finland by accident in the early Eighties. More than forty years on, he is still there. He has watched the transformation of his adopted homeland from semi-detached member of the Soviet bloc to modern European nation that tops the rankings, year after year, as 'the happiest country in the world'.

Does it deserve that status? Do the Finns, known for their hard drinking, theirsisu(grit) and their passion for heavy metal, recognise that description of themselves? Telling the story of his own path to Finnish citizenship while also delving into the writings of a 19th-century British traveller, Bird interrogates the claim made on Finland's behalf.

In this clear-sighted but never cynical sideways look at the land of the sauna, the Northern Lights and the Moomins, Bird spotlights the Nordic nation's distinctive culture, landscape and language. As he helps us understand the Finnish notion of contentment, are there life-lessons for the rest of us?

More in Memoirs

Is It Too Early To Bitch? - Grace Rouvray

SIGNED COPY

RRP $36.99

$26.99

27%
OFF
The Make-Believe : A memoir of magic and madness - Hannah Murray

RRP $36.99

$27.99

24%
OFF
Unbothered : The Art of Letting Go to Find Yourself - Margarita Nazarenko
Wormhole - Hannah McElhinney

Paperback

RRP $36.99

$29.99

19%
OFF
Diddly Squat : The Farmer's Dog - Jeremy Clarkson

RRP $26.99

$22.99

15%
OFF
The Missing Piece : How I became an accidental activist - James O'Loghlin
Periodic Bitch - Emma Hardy

RRP $29.99

$24.99

17%
OFF
Being Patient : Close Encounters in Cancer World - Na'ama Carlin

RRP $34.99

$29.99

14%
OFF
This Is Me : A Reckoning - Hayden Panettiere

RRP $34.99

$26.99

23%
OFF
Monsters in the Archives : My Year of Fear with Stephen King - Caroline Bicks
Joyful, Anyway : Finding Delight in Impossible Times - Kate Bowler
Famesick : A Memoir - Lena Dunham

RRP $34.99

$24.99

29%
OFF
Things I Told My Notes App : Secret Diary of an Oversharer - Milly Goldsmith