About
Once dubbed “the Real-Life Willy Wonka”, Angus – the former editor of Kennedy’s Confection, the leading trade magazine for the sweets and chocolate industry – became a fixture in the global media, appearing on BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Bloomberg and Al Jazeera, among many others. He also founded the London Chocolate Forum, now one of the world’s largest gatherings of chocolate professionals.
But after a series of personal setbacks including career loss, divorce and near-homelessness revealed life wasn’t always a box of chocolates, Angus turned to the self-help industry for answers. He read dozens of bestselling self-help books, watched endless motivational videos, followed the gurus, wrote the journals and recited the mantras, only to find himself feeling worse, not better. The more he tried to ‘stay positive’, the more stuck and miserable he became. That’s when he realised the problem wasn’t him – it was the system.
Now known as ‘Mr Negativity’, Angus is the world’s first anti-self-help self-help expert. His philosophy is simple but radical: life is hard, and pretending otherwise only makes it harder. Being told to keep positive and bury negative emotions leads millions to chase an impossible standard of constant happiness only to fail and feel worse. Instead of trying to fix ourselves, we need to stop lying to ourselves. Only then, he argues, can we begin to take back our power, find freedom and rediscover personal growth.
Angus has penned eight books to date, including Bittersweet, his acclaimed memoir of life as a professional chocolate taster. His new book, The Positivity Trap, provides a bold, no-nonsense guide to breaking free from toxic positivity and finding real strength by facing life’s struggles, not hiding from them.
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