How to Be a Better Person

The hilarious-and occasionally heartwarming-adventures of a volunteering cynic

When Seb Hunter accidentally picks up a phone call for a charity fundraiser one day, he faces a moment of reckoning. It isn't so much that he lacks a social conscience, but that he can no longer assuage it by simply eating the odd bar of Fairtrade chocolate. So he decides to sign up with the charity, transform good intention into commitment, and get involved in as many different types of volunteering as possible.

From falling out with fellow do-gooders at Oxfam to becoming embroiled in labyrinthine bureaucracy on behalf of a Congolese asylum seeker, from hospital radio and litter picking to working at the local homeless shelter and averting climate change (although not all simultaneously), Hunter sheds blood, sweat, and tears in the name of Good Causes. But can working for no financial reward actually make you a "better person"?