The Optimist by Laurence Shorter

Book cover ; The Optimist by Laurence Shorter. Photo / Supplied

British writer-comedian Laurence Shorter finds it hard to leap from bed in the mornings, decides he's tired of all the world's bad news, so sets out to interview and be reassured by high-profile, positive people around the planet.

At the start, Shorter certainly needs cheering up. He's 30, still lives with his dad, and has a life that revolves around his damaged laptop.

He draws up a list of 50-plus things to feel depressed about: "global warming ... plastic bags ... Victoria Beckham". Then he starts looking for positive slants on them.

First he writes to Bjorn Lomberg, climate change sceptic/denier. He gets a reply telling him Lomberg isn't an optimist; he's a realist. (A lot of the people say this.) He talks with Tim Smit of The Eden Project, who smokes cigars, has a bad back, and says the real problem is media beat-up.

He tries a touch of Eastern mysticism, a dash of self- affirmation (all the books seem to have flowers on their covers), a soupcon of spiritualism. Then the girl in his life decides to travel, and so does he, catching potential optimists as he goes.

Harold Pinter is at a birthday party, but not in a birthday mood. Mick Jagger is edgy in a park. A psychic unblocker in New York grants Shorter 30 seconds; an expert in Decision Theory lectures him on "statistical, actuarial, objective value".

A lot of eminent people are surprisingly patient. He gets to ride in Desmond Tutu's BMW, before the archbishop tells him he's saintly material and then tosses him out. The Dalai Lama's translator has some opaque suggestions. The famous Surfing Rabbi of California advises him to be combat-ready. Bill Clinton acknowledges him in a lecture.

It lollops along, a 300-page book that often reads like an expanded stand-up comedy script. It's chuckle-quietly stuff, rather than laugh-out-loud, an amiable, undemanding distraction.

David Hill is a Taranaki writer.