The Stories of Your Life

Every aspect of human behaviour is part of a story - by understanding the stories, you can understand life itself. Read by the author, Ben Ambridge. 'Fascinating, entertaining and deeply smart' - Will Storr, bestselling author of The Status Game
Wars, pandemics, Brexit, Elon Musk, the impending doom of our species, the enduring popularity of Ted Lasso - we live in confusing and uncertain times. Won't someone make it all make sense?
In The Stories of Your Life, bestselling author Ben Ambridge explains that the often-bizarre behaviour of individuals, organizations and even whole countries makes perfect sense, once we understand them in terms of stories. Through generations of storytelling, we have together condensed the human experience into just eight distinct stories. And whether we're pitching a product, bidding to become president, or simply trying to find love and happiness, we do so by retelling ourselves, and each other, one of these stories.
Using real-life examples, psychological research and our favourite stories, The Stories of Your Life will teach you:
- The 'recipes' behind these powerful narratives - How the plots of stories like The Lord of the Rings (Quest), Ted Lasso (Untangled) and Macbeth (Icarus) follow these recipes - How these same plots play out in real life, from addiction (Monster) to sporting rivalries (Feud) and dramatic rescues (Hole) - The psychological science that explains why these stories are so compelling
A guide to help you understand the world around you, The Stories of Your Life shares fascinating lessons about the nature of humanity, the power of psychology and the way we see ourselves. 'Ambridge expertly decodes and deciphers [the stories of our lives] so we can all benefit and grow' - Matt Abrahams, author of Think Faster Talk Smarter

Ben Ambridge is Professor of Psycholinguistics at the University of Manchester and the ESRC International Centre for Language and Communicative Development (LuCiD). His first two books, Psy-Q: You Know Your IQ - Now Test Your Psychological Intelligence and Are You Smarter Than a Chimpanzee have sold over 100,000 copies across sixteen language editions. These books led to regular columns in The Observer and The Big Issue, appearances on Channel 4's Sunday Brunch, BBC Radio 2's Chris Evans Breakfast Show, the BBC's Tiny Happy People website, talks at Google, The Royal Institution, Oxford Literary Festival, Wilderness Festival and Bestival, and a TEDx talk, 'Nine Myths About Psychology', that has had over 3 million views.
Ben's day job as a prolific researcher of experimental psycholinguistics keeps him up to date with findings from the psychology, linguistics and neuroscience literature; knowledge that has proven extremely valuable when undertaking a writing project at the intersection of these disciplines.