To help us prepare for the annual festival / ordeal of St Valentine, philosopher Roman Krznaric will take us on an exploration through the history of love, to find lessons on being a good lover today, and how to develop a new philosophy of love for the twenty-first century. 

Drawing on material from his new book, The Wonderbox: Curious Histories of How to Live, Krznaric will begin with the Ancient Greeks and their idea that there were six different varieties of love. He will also explain why our ideal of romantic love and finding a soulmate is one of the most disastrous developments in the history of the emotions, a legacy that we need to put firmly behind us. Along the way you’ll find out why jousting knights wore dresses, Dutch fathers wore paternity bonnets, and why medieval Arab sex manuals recommended that ‘a moist kiss is better than a hasty coitus’.

Roman Krznaric is a cultural thinker and founding faculty member of The School of Life in London, which offers instruction and inspiration on the important questions of everyday life. He advises organisations including Oxfam and the United Nations on using empathy and conversation to create social change, and has been named by The Observer as one of Britain’s leading lifestyle philosophers.

Click here to read The Independent's review of Krznaric's book, which begins: 'Everywhere you look, philosophers are climbing down from their ivory towers, abandoning more abstract pursuits in favour of practical advice on how to live.' 

 Click here for the Amazon page for Krznaric's book The Wonderbox. 

NB: we're meeting at the Camden Head in Angel Islington, not the one in Camden!