You would call it luck were the word not so distasteful. A decade ago, academics Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett were writing a book about how inequality is bad for society. Just before it was published, the global economy imploded. Public spending was cut, wages stagnated (except at the very top), inequality grew and social problems multiplied. The Spirit Level went on to be a bestseller, a modern tract for the times.

A decade later, just as we are waking up to the costs of the mayhem being caused to our collective mental well-being, Wilkinson and Pickett have published The Inner Level, which is subtitled “How More Equal Societies Reduce Stress, Restore Sanity and Improve Everyone’s Well-being”.