So what is it about Carlisle that makes it Britain's happiest city? | UK news | The Observer

So what is it about Carlisle that makes it Britain's happiest city? | UK news | The Observer

Here's a question it seems worth travelling the length of the country to ask: do we laugh because we are happy, or are we happy because we laugh?

Keith Adams, who runs the Carlisle Laughter and Happiness Club, is in no doubt about the answer. "Oh, we fake it before we make it," he tells me, with a chuckle: "The more you laugh, the happier you become!"

Adams, a former RAF officer now aged 70, has only been running his happiness club for a year, though he's been a laughter therapist (to corporations and women's institutes and everything in between) for a lot longer. In Carlisle he started out with one member; now his giggling disciples number 30 or 40. Next month he will lead a laughter ramble around a local tarn – "We tend to do a bit of skinny-dipping laughter to get the ball rolling," he explains.