From the co-host of The High Low comes the essential first book on navigating our contemporary chaos.
‘Pandora is my personal guru on all things relating to the zeitgeist. How lucky you are that she can now be yours too.’
Dolly Alderton
Modern life is full of choices. We’re told that happiness lies within and we can be whoever we want to be. But with endless possibility comes a feeling of restlessness; like we’re somehow failing to live our best life. What does doing it right even look like? And why do so many women feel like they’re getting it wrong?
From faster-than-fast fashion to millennial burnout, the explosion of wellness to the rise of cancel culture, Pandora Sykes interrogates the stories we’ve been sold and the ones we tell ourselves. Wide-ranging, thoughtful and witty, How Do We Know We’re Doing It Right? explores the anxieties and myths that consume our lives and the tools we use to muddle through.
So sit back and take a breath. It’s time to stop worrying about the answers – and start delighting in the questions.
About the Author
Pandora Sykes is a journalist and contributing editor and columnist for ELLE magazine. Previously the Fashion Features Editor and a columnist for the Sunday Times Style, she has also written for the Telegraph, Guardian, GQ, i-D, Red magazine, Vogue Australia and Man Repeller. With Dolly Alderton, Pandora Sykes hosts the no 1 iTunes current affairs podcast The High Low, which has 250,000 weekly listeners and has featured authors including Leila Slimani, Reni Eddo-Lodge and Tina Brown.
Industry Reviews
A timely collection of essays from journalist and podcast host Pandora Sykes that touch on everything from happiness to wellness; womanhood to consumerism and the anxieties and agendas that consume our lives ... Sharp and observant writing ... A manifesto for the millennial woman. * Evening Standard *
A collection of essays that feel like I'm in a deep and open conversation with the person who peered inside my head and saw exactly what I've been thinking about all these years. Thorough, timely and fulsome. -- Candice Carty-Williams
Sykes's essays, written pre-pandemic, could have read like a relic from a pampered bygone age with nothing bigger to worry about. Yet, instead, it feels like a cleareyed warning of the world to which we may now be returning. -- Gaby Hinsliff * Guardian *
Tackles subjects that some might dismiss as trivial (texting, social media, why women increasingly want to dress like one another) with striking intellectual rigour ... refreshing for the depth and breadth of its research. Rather than making generalisations about womanhood based on anecdotes from her own life, Sykes draws on statistics, philosophy, pop culture and more to make thoughtful, considered observations. * Stylist *
I absolutely loved How Do We Know We're Doing It Right?. It's like a very clever, lucid, charming friend unpacking all the messy anxieties of modern existence with tremendous intelligence and elan. Women will recognise parts of the themselves on every page, regardless of their age, whether Sykes is writing about authenticity, social media or the need to always seem busy. I found it deeply interesting and often enlightening: I kept putting it down to think about something the author had said. Read this book. It will help your life. -- India Knight
If you're into the kind of book that you can greedily imbibe in a few riveted sittings (and why wouldn't you be) don't miss Pandora Sykes' debut [...] It's as witty and zeitgeisty as you'd expect from 'The High Low' co-host, but it's also thoroughly, thoughtfully researched [...] The essays avoid cliche to strike a fresh, honest note. It's highly likely you'll close this book with half the pages turned down and pictures of passages * Vanity Fair *
A collection shot through with inquiring curiosity and thoughtful questioning, written with real consideration and candour. -- Elizabeth Day
Pandora is my personal guru on all things relating to the zeitgeist. How lucky you are that she can now be yours too. -- Dolly Alderton
A brilliant, brave and highly erudite collection of essays. Pandora Sykes is emerging as a leading thinker of her generation. -- Will Storr
