To be really hygge, you have to eat loads of cakes and chocolate. One essential component of hygge is eating.

There isn’t a great deal more to say about hygge but that’s not going to stop me saying it – because one of the best things about being hygge is that no one listens to a word anyone else is saying, so no one one knows when someone else is being boring. A bit like what Brexit meant to many people. Retreating to a space where you feel safe and not bothering about anyone you don’t know. Every country may have their own ideas of what makes them hygge, but the concept is basically the same. Imagine a world where everyone leaves work at 5.30, goes straight home to light a candle, before eating a few cakes with some friends and going to bed at 9.45. Swedish lamps are a bit rubbish and won’t make you feel hygge. Make sure that if you do get a lamp, you don’t buy one from Ikea. Danes use twice as many lamps as the rest of the world combined. So get a candle from a candle shop and light it. Danes use twice as many candles as the rest of the world combined. Every day, at least one person asks me to share the secret of my hygginess – and now that I’ve noticed several other publishers have brought out books about hygge, I have decided to share my secrets in the hope that the money I earn will make me even hyggier.

Research conducted by the Happiness Research Institute, of which I am the founder member, has concluded that the Danes are the happiest people in the world and that I am the happiest Dane.

The Little Book of Hygge by Meik Wiking