Leading article: Cheer up, Britain!

A Young Woman's Escape from Childhood Hell. The True Story of a Child in Desperate Peril. What Has She Done That Is So Terrible? How a Childhood Was Stolen and a Trust Betrayed. The subtitles of just some of the books on the Amazon bestsellers list tell an alarming story of a nation addicted to Schadenfreude.

As we report today, "misery lit" is a big growth sector in publishing, with Waterstones even bringing in a "Painful Lives" section in some of its shops. But wait. Is such revelling in the misfortune of others really good for the national psyche? We are not wholly convinced by the blurb for last year's top-selling misery memoir, Behind Closed Doors, which describes it as an ultimately uplifting tale of transcending childhood horrors, by virtue of "the power of love and an indestructible self-belief".

Lighten up, Britain. Get out more. Never mind the rain. Spring is coming. May we direct you a little way down the bestsellers list to the 50th anniversary edition of Wainwright's Pictorial Guides to the Lakeland Fells?

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