The Plot

Jacques, an 18-year-old Anglo-French student, is plunged unwillingly into a life of mystery as the result of a hiking accident in a remote part of Scotland. Who is Nikolai, the taciturn foreigner with bright golden eyes? What on earth is he doing hidden away in such a God-forsaken place? Who is Catriona? What is she up to in her secret laboratory? What does Benevix mean? What do the letters BQLBV stand for? Instead of studying literature at Oxford University as planned, Jacques finds himself whirled away on a philosophical roller-coaster in which everything he thought he knew is first torn to shreds then gradually replaced by a dramatic new view of life. Adventures of the mind are intermingled with the forging of new friendships; with the ups and downs, and joys, of first love; and with physical predicaments so sudden and dangerous that Jacques is forced to draw on reserves of self-reliance and courage he didn’t know he had.

A Tale of Two Stories

Old Nick’s Guide to Happiness is first and foremost a novel, a mystery-cum-adventure story in which a young man comes of age in highly unusual circumstances.  At the same time, the book tells the story of a new system of philosophy – based partly on the ideas of of the Russian-American novelist-philosopher Ayn Rand – a philosophy which challenges traditional ideas of ethics and government and offers in their stead a new vision of human life on earth:  the inviolable self-ownership and freedom of every individual, and a purely voluntary society in which sovereign individuals are brought together solely by persuasion and mutual respect.  The two stories unfold together; the mystery and adventure providing entertainment, intrigue and suspense; the philosophy – presented clearly and non-technically from first principles to the end of politics – providing food for the enquiring mind.  Among many new ideas is the presentation of sexuality as a major human virtue.