Will Jelbert
Jelbert has spent the last five years researching the psychology of happiness. His first book, The Happiness Animalbecame a best seller and is recognized as the first practical exercise guide to happiness. In April 2016, Jelbert released a new narrative of happiness, 25 Days. His alternative careers guide, Jobs Verse will be published in June 2016, and he is currently working on a series of five illustrated children's books about five happiness animals. (publisher and release date TBC).
Jelbert was born in Cornwall, the far South Western edge of the United Kingdom, and grew up on a fourth generation family farm two miles outside of Penzance. Yes, the Penzance that made the Pirates famous. Jelbert's childhood was spent walking the cows in for milking after school, sorting through potatoes on the harvester, and driving the tractor while Jelbert's parents and grandparents cut cauliflower. By age eighteen, Jelbert had developed an aptitude for languages, thanks in part to the many conversations with the girls next door during the family's holiday trips to Brittany.
Jelbert left the farm to study modern languages at Exeter University. After graduating, Reuters offered Jelbert a job translating French and German market information into English. Over the next ten years Jelbert worked in London, Geneva, and New York and took a year-long assignment to India in 2005 before relocating to Sydney in 2006. Jelbert became an Australian citizen in July 2010. After a year living in Denver, Colorado, Jelbert now lives in New York.
Since 2013 Jelbert has offered happiness coaching sessions to both individuals and groups, as well as running a regular happiness exercise class in Union Square. He has appeared in two interviews with the BBC in the UK, and participates in the annual 'Happiness and its Causes' world happiness conference in Sydney, Australia. He also receives commissions to write articles on happiness. Jelbert continues his studies of happiness and psychology through Manchester Metropolitan University in the UK.
