A home for the heart: home as the key to happiness

Previous Praise: One of our very fine social commentators.

Helena Kennedy QC Gleefully sniffs out signs of the changing times.

Sunday Times We all need a place to return to every day, where we can be ourselves.

However, modern pressures often get in the way of having a home that serves as a stable haven for all who live there.

Angela Neustatter investigates the ways in which people use their home as the key to happiness in different personal circumstances.

What mindset works best? Does how you organise yourself matter? Why are some homes living hells? Her search for answers ranges widely across the globe, from her own family to the Australian estate of Dame Elisabeth Murdoch to a crumbling tower-block in London; from a lesbian houseshare in small-town Texas to an eco-village in Wales.

Home can once again become the root of our happiness, if we find a new way of taking stock of how we live where we live.