The News: A User's Manual

Alain de Botton reflects on the modern-day addiction to the news and tries to show how 'this ubiquitous and familiar habit' is actually 'a lot weirder and rather more hazardous' than we think.

He takes a number of news stories - from MPs' expenses to an air crash - and subjects them to intense analysis, while also examining our responses to news items such as murder, disasters and celebrities' love lives.