Helen Russell's "The Year of Living Danishly": Unveiling the Mysteries of a Nation Renowned for Its Contentment

Graeme Kemp: The book is interesting, personal and amusing in parts. Denmark is clearly an interesting, egalitarian society - I might not move where the author lived though, if I did move there ....

United Kingdom on Nov 09, 2023

Patricia D.: This author was a lifestyle writer for glossy magazines and this comes across in the book - the writing is witty, easy to read and informative. I haven't finished it yet, but I'm enjoying the read very much.

Canada on Sep 27, 2023

Afifa AzamAfifa Azam: Thanks to the author for bringing out a book of this kind which throws light on how to experience living in a new place altogether, for a year, and in the process falling in love with it. It is a well-researched book and teaches the readers a lot many things! There is insight, learning, adventure and humor in it.

India on Sep 02, 2023

Hannah J: We set about our danish adventure in 2020 when my husband moved to Copenhagen leaving me and our two boys in the UK to attempt to muddle life along. We were due to join him around Easter 2021 but that pandemic put a stop to nearly all our plans. In the end by October 2021 we joined him in Denmark and started our year (well I said six months to begin with. I wasn’t staying).

Before I knew the idea of moving back to the UK was as big and slightly scary as the actually moving to Denmark in the first place.

Anyway, I see so much in Helen’s adventure that we had to navigate ourselves when we got here. Things like riding a bike for the first time in nearly a decade… that was an adventure. Many annoyed motorists and cyclists as I get it wrong again! But also many wienerbrød consumed and Hygge and happiness than ever before.

If you’re considering the crazy adventure or maybe you’re already on one. Take a read. You’ll love it.

United Kingdom on Jun 04, 2023

Craig Rowland: I was happy to give my partner The Year of Living Danishly: Uncovering the Secrets of the World’s Happiest Country by Helen Russell as a requested Christmas gift last year. After he read it I wanted it next. It was originally published in 2015 and I was happy to buy the 2020 edition which included a new chapter. In 2013 the author moved to Billund, Denmark after her husband got a job at the Lego headquarters, located in the town. She left her job as editor of Marie Claire and embarked on a job as a freelancer, endeavouring to find out what made the Danes the happiest people in the world.

In a series of chapters divided by each month of the year and an accompanying theme, Russell discovered the ways of living Danishly. She interviewed Danish lifestyle experts, professionals, neighbours and regular Danes she met on the street. Russell discovered many reasons for overall Danish happiness, but a couple reasons stood out in particular: the Danish devotion to rules and to traditions. Whether discovering the rules about flying the Danish flag (the Dannebrog) or other national flags, the appropriate way to decorate a home, or why you’d kill a giraffe, Russell found humour in...

Canada on Jul 15, 2021

Holly: While the title would indicate there are twelve chapters in the book (one per month), there are actually thirteen, along with a hefty prologue, a significant epilogue, and another section called "Top ten tips for living Danishly". This is much more than a quick romp through living in Denmark as a ex-pat.

I love the author's writing style - humorous, honest, and introspective - and she gives the reader such great understanding of how she and her husband ended up leaving London for a year in Denmark. While treated with frequent funny asides, the factors coming together to prompt this move are actually significant and relatable. There were so many notes I highlighted while reading, but this one was very early on: "wishing away half your life in anticipation of retirement (albeit an awesome one) was verging on the medieval....the fact that I was dreaming of retirement at the age of 33 was probably an indicator that something had to change."

Once in Denmark, there are a huge number of facts relevant to Danes, Danish living, and human experience in general. In the January chapter, the element of design is explored such as "research shows that great art and design can even...

United States on Nov 24, 2018

Allen Smalling: In the Forties and Fifties, some very effective satire was written by Americans from small towns who moved to big cities, or big city-dwellers who assayed suburbia: MY SISTER EILEEN and PLEASE DON'T EAT THE DAISIES, for example. In this century the same sense of alienation and mild cultural clash are more likely to come from native speakers of English who wind up in similarly well-developed countries with different languages and cultures: France in the highly successful FRENCH KIDS EAT EVERYTHING or in THE YEAR OF LIVING DANISHLY, in which a go-getting London journalist and her amiable husband ("Lego Man") commit to a year in a remote coastal village on Jutland.

What could go wrong? Well, lots of things according to author Helen Russell, who admits that going to a remote small town early in winter is not a way to meet the local Danes, because people tend to hole up during long winters full of short days. More or less stuck at home, but armed with cell phone and the Internet, she proves her intrepidity by interviewing all manner of Danish experts on such topics as the elusive quality of "hygge" (which roughly translates as *Gemuetlickeit* though "cozy" is only a vague...

United States on Jan 02, 2017