Helen Russell had her dream job working for a glossy women’s magazine in London, writing lifestyle pieces that told her readers how they could “have it all”. The problem was, she didn’t believe it: “I felt like a fraud.” She wasn’t at all happy. Then her husband landed a job at Denmark’s most successful company – Lego. And, as Denmark is famously the country with the most contented citizens, she decides to find out the secret to being happy, which is after all “the holy grail of the lifestyle journalist”. The result is a hugely enjoyable romp through the pleasures and pitfalls of setting up home in a foreign land – and not in stylish Copenhagen, but in rural Jutland, where one of the highlights of the year is Dancing Cow Day (when the cows are put out to pasture). In the end, Russell decides it’s not that surprising Danes are so happy: “they have an obscenely good quality of life”. Yes, they pay more taxes (a lot more), but they adequately fund their health service, pay no tuition fees, work 34 hours a week and have five weeks’ paid holiday a year. What’s not to like? But despite this, Denmark still has the highest level of antidepressant use in Europe, a strange fact that’s not really explained.
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