The subtitle of this book is In Search of a Good Life, so I thought it would be a good read as part of the ongoing happiness project. Turns out it hasn’t provided me with any concrete info for the research project, but it’s certainly got me thinking.

Jones’s book recalls how he spent a year with his wife and newborn child living in a variety of communes in Italy and the UK. But the communities he stays in aren’t what you’d think of when you first hear the word ‘commune’. Rather than political philosophy or social motivation as their main common factor, each community shares a common religious goal. He investigates what placing religion at the hear of a community does to people.

From Quaker pensioners, to old-fashioned farmyards and new age communes. Interesting reading.