We spend most of our waking lives at work - in occupations often chosen by our unthinking sixteen year old selves. And yet we rarely ask ourselves how we got there or what it might mean for us. Equally intrigued by work’s pleasures and its pains, Alain de Botton heads into the office, the factory, the fishing fleet and the logistics centre, ears and eyes open to the beauty, interest and sheer strangeness of the modern workplace. Why do we do it? What makes it pleasurable? What is its meaning? And why do we daily exhaust not only ourselves but also the planet?

Characteristically lucid, witty and inventive, Alain de Botton’s ‘song for occupations’ is a celebration and exploration of an aspect of life which is all too often ignored and yet as central to us as our love lives.