A Planner's Guide to Happiness

A Planner's Guide to Happiness Featuring enforcement notices, existential hedges, and mix tapes

Meet Alistair Finch: Senior Planning Officer, owner of a flatulent lurcher named Peabody, and reluctant attendee at what may be rural England's only licensed alpaca disco.

After twenty-five years fleeing the city for the peace of Yorkshire, Alistair finds himself enforcing Listed Building Consent against a sequinned ruminant, interpreting drainage policy for a man who may have dug a moat, and attending Planning Committee where the agenda includes a poem about the soul of the high street.

This is a novel for anyone who has ever sat through a public consultation, muttered something darkly at the NPPF, or wondered why the most rewarding job in the world occasionally involves confiscating an altar-fridge full of Strongbow.

Warm, deadpan, and written by someone who has been in the room when it all went sideways, A Planner's Guide to Happiness is a love letter to the absurdity of planning — and to the people stubborn enough to keep turning up.

"Planning is about places. But more than that, it's about people. If we forget that, we forget everything." "And also: Always check the drainage notes."

18 chapters. One very patient dog. Unlimited vibes — not a recognised exemption under the 1990 Act.