How to Be Happy: A Memoir of Love, Sex and Teenage Confusion (Unabridged‪)‬

Winner, of the Text Prize for Young Adult and Children's Writing, 2014.

A funny, sad, and serious memoir, How to Be Happy is David Burton’s story of his turbulent life at high school and beyond. 

Feeling out of place and convinced that he is not normal, David has a rocky start. He longs to have a girlfriend, but his first "date" is a disaster. There’s the catastrophe of the school swimming carnival, David not being sporty, and friendships that take devastating turns. Then, he finds some solace in drama classes with the creation of "Crazy Dave", and he builds a life where everything is fine. 

But everything is not fine. And, at the center of it all, trying desperately to work it all out, is the real David.

How to Be Happy tackles depression, friendship, sexual identity, suicide, academic pressure, love, and adolescent confusion. It’s a brave and honest account of one young man’s search for a happy, true, and meaningful life that will resonate with listeners young and old.