Teenage Henfield author’s inspiring quest

“It’s beneficial to follow your own dreams and not get caught up in peer pressures,” said Harry Noad, a Henfield resident who has published his self-help book that draws from his own experiences.

The book, launched last week at Hurstpierpoint College, where Harry attended, is appropriately entitled: ‘Herding Does Not Make You Happy: Turn yourself into someone you love’.

“For many years I was intent on being like others and fitting in with social groups.”

An avid writer with a keen eye for poetry, Harry said he was afraid to tell people about his creative hobbies in case he was perceived as ‘uncool’.

“One day it all snapped and I decided I wanted to be someone who I was proud of and not someone I didn’t like looking at in the mirror.”

During the Easter break in 2012, Harry set out to write his book to help people in his situation overcome these traps.

“I wrote a chunk of it, but then put it on the back burner for a while over the holidays.”

But it was an horrific tragedy that influenced the aspiring writer to push forward.

“One of my friends killed himself. He didn’t feel like he was free and felt he had to do what other people wanted. It made me want to go back and finish the book.”

Completing the ambitious project by Christmas 2012, Harry’s debut was published using Amazon’s ‘Createspace’, making it available to potentially millions of readers.

“I would definitely recommend self-publishing to other people because I had complete control of the project.”

Now a student at Oxford University, in his spare time Harry tours schools to discuss the themes in his book and help pupils with pressures like relationships and managing work loads.

‘Herding Does Not Make You Happy’ is now available on Amazon.